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"this model has a slower SSD than the other models"
-- asdf on Asus Eee PC 900 16GB for $399 Tip-Toes On the Scene
HTC, which just announced its new touchscreen cell phone, the Diamond, had been treating this new product announcement with a great deal of secrecy, even flying over the assembled press corps (yes, that includes you too, bloggers) to London for the event, like a modern-day Willy Wonka. Well, dear reader, LAPTOP had one of the golden tickets, so follow the jump to see what all the fuss is about.
Representing the “ultimate essence of mobile” in this stunning slider, the Samsung Soul has pretty much everything you need in a handset—except, well, availability in the U.S. We pleaded with Samsung to see if this divine device would be coming to the states; the sad response? Don’t hold your breath. But don’t let that stop you from drooling over the specs.
The Soul features a touch-sensitive navigation pad below a 2.2-inch QVGA screen, reminiscent of the LG Venus in its app-specific, function-shifting capabilities: You get one set of “buttons” for phone calls, another for music, and another for the camera, which sports a 5-megapixel sensor, face detection, and image stabilization. As if that’s not enough, this tri-band phone can access the Internet with 7.2-Mbps HSDPA speeds.
Lucky him, LAPTOP’s editor in chief Mark Spoonauer got a bit of hands-on time with the Soul at CTIA Wireless earlier this month. Images and full specs are below.
South Korean manufacturer Fine Drive today announced the CUVi, a GPS device with DMB capability. Yes, that’s live television. In your car. While you’re driving.
The 5.4-ounce CUVi sports a 3.5-inch display to efficiently navigate users to their respective destinations and equally effectively increase the likelihood of driving into a telephone pole while watching the morning news or a movie. Drivers can load their hazard-inviting PND with up to 2GB of delightfully distracting entertainment. The CUVi will sell in South Korea for 300,000KRW (about $307), and by a stroke of good fortune, no U.S. version appears to be in the works.
[via Aving USA]
From the bright minds of Britain’s answer to ThinkGeek, Thumbs Up is selling a T-shirt that is sure to entertain anyone with a 10-second attention span. A white-board style panel centered on the cotton tee lets you write offensive messages, draw lewd photos, or scribble whatever you please, then lighting up your doodle via a pulsing strobe beneath the panel.
Perfect for geeks, ravers, and gag gifts, the T-Sketch is available through the U.K. site for £30, or about 60 bucks. It runs on two AAA batteries, and though the site will ship to the U.S., we doubt you’ll want to shell out the extra £33 for shipping (giving you a grand total of about $120). To get some flashy shirt action, ThinkGeek does have a few, if less versatile, options.
[via Pocket-lint]
And the “Hey, Why Not” Award Goes to… Nokia! Today the mobile giant launched a program called “M4Girls,” in conjunction with nonprofit organization Mindset Network, to bring mobile phones that help teach math to South Africa.
The program is geared toward high-school-age girls, who’ve historically performed poorly in math in South Africa. Nokia will be providing its 6300 model phones, preloaded with educational games and materials, that initially two schools in the North West Province will incorporate into course curricula.
Okay, so the idea runs in the same vein as providing third-world educational systems with cute Kelly-green computers—the effort is sincere—but maybe I’m missing how stuffing math books into a handset will improve the current educational system over standard textbooks and, you know, student-teacher interaction.
Also wondering if the kids will get their choice of the 6300’s three color options: teacher’s-pet silver, school-marm black, or teen-angst red.
You can bet that when I came across the holy grail of xenophilia-meets-green-technology, my attention was drawn. A China-based phone maker has wedged a 32800-mAh lithium battery into a touchscreen-enabled candy-bar phone and swears it will run for two years on one charge.
A quick look at the specs, however, reveals that this never-say-die handset, while boasting an (approximate?) standby time of 666 days, offers an aggressively mediocre talk time of 5 to 6 days. If you still care, it features a 3-inch display, dual SIM slots, dual cameras, an MP3 player, and more for $128.
So, allegedly, it should even outlive its one-year warranty, meaning if the claim isn’t true, you probably won’t be able to do anything about it anyway. We’ll, uh, keep you posted on those battery-life tests.
[Via GadgetTell]
Superphones of the world, unite! And come over to the states, please; we’re getting antsy.
The announcements for sweet new phones keep rolling in, and sure, the states have some cool stuff, but that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t wholly embrace these international goodies. Read on to see what we adore about the coming-not-anytime-soon phones of the future.
As the cheap-laptops-for-kids market is now brimming with overkill, yesterday Samsung announced its next iteration of the Q1 Ultra, which is neither cheap nor exactly a laptop but proudly jumps on the Eee PC–rival bandwagon, according to U.K. gadget blog Pocket-lint. The company will gear this version of the Window Vista–running, touchscreen UMPC toward educational markets, but it’s only slated for a
If it’s competing for some of Asus’ mini-notebook market share, this contender probably won’t make much of a splash on this side of the pond: It’s selling for £399, or about $800—drastically cheaper than previous Q1 Ultras but a $300-plus premium over other mini-notebooks. It does have a few unique selling points for this growing market, though.
The OLPC XO and Intel’s Classmate PC are built for tiny paws, but you certainly wouldn’t put a Q1 into the hands of a sixth grader. The Q1 also one-ups the Eee PC by sporting a touchscreen display, and it probably beats out Everex’ CloudBook in, well, everything. But cost is a mountain of a trade-off. We’re not sure how many British academies will be able (or want) to dish out for such a pricey educational accessory; then again, we have seen more useless stateside efforts. But hey, it’s for the children.
Pocket-lint via Engadget
This tech-tease was shown off at CES back in January, but don’t hold your breath for its stateside debut. Samsung’s SWT-W100K (which a Samsung spokeswoman called “more of an mobile Internet device than a PMP,” so take your pick) features a delicious 4.3-inch WVGA touchscreen, and a hodgepodge of extras: GPS, 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, 8GB flash memory, VoIP, Web browser, personal organizer, and DMB mobile TV. And, no, you can’t have it.
Available only in
Samsung told us that, while we won’t see this exact device in the states, a similar version in the works may come to market as early the end of this year. Of course, it’s keeping mum about details. Xohm, anyone? Until then, you can ogle at photos and video demonstrations, or, you know, move to
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