Gadgetstronics

This is where we call out the tech moves that seem odd, out of touch or just plain straight up smokin’ crack.  This week sees posturing, positioning and flat out insanity.  Here is what caught my eye this week:

LG Lotus

Egads!  A square flip phone?  This thing is like a last generation Nano morphed into a crazy flip phone.  There was a reason RIM didn’t make a flip QWERTY:  It is frickin stupid.  Cramming the keys in there is just plain nuts, come on, LG.  Are you that desperate to make a breakthrough device that you’ll make anything someone says? 

Here is a hint: it isn’t so much about the phone these days, it’s how it works.  Give us a clean UI that isn’t impossible to change settings on.  Give us access to everything.  Give us clean, crisp, commonsensical menus and an app store folks want to develop for.  If you can’t do that, license it from Apple.

AT&T says no to Android

In an interesting move, Ralph de La Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets was asked about Android and the response given was basically it isn’t mature enough yet.  AT&T wants to see more non-Google apps, and a following. 

You know what?  I agree with him.  Android isn’t doing anything spectacular yet.  The apps are good and interesting but I am not seeing the flurry of activity that we did with iPhone apps and part of that is they are all free right now on the Android Market.  If there is not cash to be made then there isn’t going to be a flurry.  Yet.  Anyone besides Google hanging around to see how this pans out?  I think AT&T is playing this one right. 

Sprint is still around?

Note to Sprint: watching NFL is the last thing I want to do with my phone.

That is right, dead f’n last.  I can’t think of a phone with the battery power to even go two hours fully juiced and receiving content like that.  Seriously Sprint, this is what you think we want???  It takes a couple of crack rocks to get that high where highlighting bandwidth issues and power issues with one stroke looks good.  The NFL must have giggled the whole ride home from that meeting.

And anytime one of your leaders says, “We’d be foolish not to do this” you know they’ve been had.

Moto is back on my list this week.

Moto, seriously?  You are going to ban the $2500 phone from selling on eBay are you?  Let’s make this simple: a) ain’t no one going to buy this 10-iphone equivalent b) if anyone does, they are going to do whatever they want with it.  That is kinda how things work, you know, here on planet Earth.  Perhaps on planet Crack Rock, you can control something after you’ve sold it, but not so much here.  Unless you are Apple.  Crackers.

Quick name two products each of these companies make: Panasonic and Sanyo.  Go!

I can’t, can you?  Two greats from tech past, apparently still going strong want to get together and make some sweet techy love.  Uh, OK, as long as we don’t have to watch.  I suspect both make black, rectangular, flat TVs.  They probably make a ton of other stuff that is OK as well.  I can’t wait to see the new mashed up name.  SonicYo would make an awesome name.  Or Sanasonic.  Anyhow, good luck with that one.

Gadgetell’s own Natesh Sood

Where do you find all these bizarre MP3 players?  You bring us the absolute craziest knock offs and stuff I never get to see in a store and do so like you were hanging out with the designer over the weekend.  From wacko touchscreen PMPs to GPS units even the manufactures don’t know about, you dig it up like a gopher and present it to us for all to see.

Dane-Elec?  You hold this company up like it is a household name around the Sood residence, yet I’ve never heard of them.  Cowon, Digital Cube, Reigncom, Roadtour and others you find prove either you know waaay too much or you could be on crack as you seem into every single one of these bizarre devices.  For the wacky stuff you find, you must be on crack.

Did I forget someone?  Who do you think is on crack?  Me?  Sound off in the comments.

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The Swann MovieStick is one of the smaller spy cameras around, as it measures slightly larger than a pack of chewing gum while tipping the scales at a mere 1 ounce. All recorded video is stored in an SD memory card (microSD would’ve been so much better). The internal lithium ion battery is able to record up to 2.5 hours of video, while the integrated USB port is used to transfer recordings to a computer in a flash. Would be interesting to see what kind of use the Swann MovieStick will see as it hits retail stores for $119.99 a pop.

So RIM said they couldn’t put together a blackberry Flip with a full QWERTY keyboard.  LG said, “We can.”

Take a look at the LG Lotus that will be available on the Sprint network.  It’s a flip phone with a full QWERTY keyboard and an odd square form factor. 

What else does it do outside of being a texting machine?  The Lotus comes with GPS navigation, music player (which works with the Sprint Music Store), Bluetooth, and a 2.0MP camera that also does video.  LG claims over 5 hours of talk time and the phone weighs in at 3.7 ounces.

You can pick one up in black or purple at $149.99 if you grab it alongside a ball and chain two year contract. 

Flashy product page: [LG Lotus]

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In the video, you’ll see Intel CEO Paul Otellini demoing an unnamed mobile internet device.  This time, Intel shows a device that is 100% touchscreen and has GPS, a camera and connectivity on board.  Watching the video, the first thing that came to my mind is Google phone OS Android.

That is because the demo was about the MID smart camera.  Using the camera, the device is able to translate Chinese very quickly and is able to add relevant YouTube videos, web pages and more all based on your GPS position and what the camera identifies.  The concept is you get all the information you desire, when you need it, where you need it.

In the next demo, the same device is used while shopping for toys.  The camera identifies the toy from the packaging and shows examples of what the pieces of the toy can be assembled into.  Relevant videos and websites are offered as are links to reviews and presumably a pricing comparison.  Cool stuff.

Unfortunately, at the end of the video, Otellini fesses up that there are computers behind the stage helping out with computing power but insists their engineers are working hard on solutions.  Certainly the concept is interesting and it is best always best to swing for the fences.

What is clear is that MIDs are going to become more sophisticated and connected, offering to help out at every turn.  Can the added value convince us to carry two devices (presumably a cell phone and MID)?  Or will we find a compromise with convergence and step out with just one.  Which brings us back to Android.  This concept isn’t too far off of a mashup of a couple of Android apps. 

The OS Android currently has two apps that do very similar things.  Wikitude uses the camera to identify your surroundings, then offers up information from Wikipedia based on what the camera sees.  ShopSavvy is the Android app that brings us scanning through the camera to access pricing, reviews etc.  Combine both and you are dangerously close to having the same power Intel dangles for us (albeit in a more limited fashion) on your phone. 

Watch the video and let us know if you think Intel is late to the game or bringing fresh ideas in the comments below.

Read [ZDNet]

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MySpace is mulling over the decision to release its own portable media player that will function in tandem with its Music service, according to Chris DeWolfe at the Web 2.0 conference. This possibility is nowhere near confirmed yet, although it would be interesting to see whether such a device will be able to unseat mighty Apple with their iPods and iTunes music service. More to come as news breaks.

Next time your “friend” hands you a pack of gum, beware. It could be Swann’s MovieStick in disguise, recording your every move. Small enough to actually fit in a gum wrapper, this industrial espionage device (read: portable digicam) can store up to 2.5 hours of video on a 2GB MicroSD card (not included). You can recharge the battery with any USB connection and while there’s no news on availability the retail tag has been set at $120. Imagine how many packs of real gum you can buy with that money.
[Source]

Remember the good old days where talking on the phone meant using a landline and not a cell phone? Well, those handsets are certainly nice to hold, and they’re solid enough to cause a bump to grow on an intruder’s head when you clock him over with it. Why not relive those nostalgic moments with this Yubz Talk retro handset? It connects to your cell phone or computer as you carry out conversations, old school style. Not too sure whether it is worth forking out $50 for this though - the idea might look cool, but it sure as heck isn’t as practical as we’d like to think.

Seriously, this netbook stuff is beginning to get ridiculous. At first they were cheap, but now they’re as expensive as a regular notebook (and less powerful).

Just Announced, Dospara’s Prime Note Cressida NC with it’s 630€ tag price you get a Core 2 Duo T5500, 2GB of RAM, 250GB of HDD, and a DVD multi. Mouse Computer Japan released their MSI Wind Base netbook, the LuvBook U100 (Atom N270, 2GB of RAM, 160GB of HDD), for the very same price!

Ok, the LuvBook is lighter and slightly more compact, but you can’t change the fact that a Core 2 Duo and a DVD multi drive is better than an ATOM CPU and not a DVD drive.
[Source]

It’s getting harder by the second for a midrange Samsung slider to look different from the four hundred others, but we’ve got to say, this here a777 isn’t half-bad looking. Images of the AT&T-bound phone are starting to pop up around the interwebs, showing a stylish shell that’ll be available in four colors — blue, red, orange, and green — not unlike its a737 cousin. We don’t have it pegged to a release date yet, but if we know cellphones — and we think we do — we certainly wouldn’t be surprised to see it come about before the holidays at a sub-$100 price point.
[Source]

by Laura June, posted Nov 7th 2008 at 3:06PM
Yesterday ASUS stunned and pleased our eyeballs with the announcement of the 12-inch N20A laptop, and today two more get added to the crew: the 14.1-inch N80V and the 15.4-inch N50V. Both have the option of T9400 / P8600 / P7350 Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, up to 4GB of RAM, and each pack NVIDIA’s GeForce 9300M GPU with 512MB of VRAM. The N80V has an up to 320GB hard drive capacity while the N50V goes up to 500GB. The N80V boasts a WXGA display and the NV50 offers WXGA / WXGA+ / WSXGA+ options. There’s also a stunning selection of ports, including eSATA and HDMI on both of these bad boys. For unequaled spec-reading pleasure, hit the read links.

[Via PC Launches, PC Launches]

Read - ASUS N80V
Read - ASUS N50V

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