Computer Information - myOddPc
Hands-on with the Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition
Filed under: Handhelds, Wireless
Having trouble telling the difference between this and a
garden-variety N810? Yeah, don't worry about it -- that's okay, and it's actually by design. We had an opportunity to tool around with Nokia's just-announced
N810 WiMAX Edition today, and it stays very true to the original N810's formula, substituting a darker case and keyboard (both of which look very handsome, by the way), and physically, that's about it. The real magic happens deep within this thing's innards, where the addition of a WiMAX radio keeps things speedy when WiFi hotspots are out of reach and Bluetooth tethering to a 3G phone is too much of a hassle. The software necessary to support XOHM activation isn't complete yet, but Nokia's reps tell us that the process of signing up for WiMAX service will be seamless and entirely doable from the N810 itself -- no pesky phone calls or visits to a store necessary. They likened it to purchasing hotel internet service; there'll probably be hourly, daily, or continuous subscriptions available, making it possible to only shell out XOHM coin when the situation demands it. It works just like any other data connection on the device, too, so getting your wide-area broadband on is pretty much as painless as it could possibly be. Check out some shots (including a side-by-side with the original N810) in the gallery!
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Switched On: Slacker in your slacks (Part 1)
Filed under: Features, Portable Audio
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.
The
Slacker Portable is the proverbial elephant being inspected by blind men. One is the crop of portable MP3 players, to which the device's service represents free, fresh music on the go in exchange for user control of track selection. Another is the bevy of online internet music sites such as Pandora, Last.fm, Finetune and others, to which it represents the leap from the beb to portable entertainment. A third is the traditional consumer electronics industry for which it portends a connected future. And a fourth are
XM and Sirius, which now appear on track to merge in part due to the kind of competition that the Slacker Portable will ultimately provide.
The Slacker Portable picks up where last year's promising
Sansa Connect left off. While that device was billed primarily as an MP3 player that boasted tight integration with the Yahoo! Music Unlimited service (now
shuttering), the Slacker Portable is labeled as a "personal radio". MP3 files can be loaded onto the device, but that feature is more of an afterthought.
The device comes in three capacities that are billed as storing a different number of stations, which are either genres preset by the internet radio service available at
slacker.com, or customized for the user based on a particular artist. One nice touch is that a device ordered from Slacker comes pre-populated with any stations you have set up on the site.
Continue reading Switched On: Slacker in your slacks (Part 1)
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Everex Cloudbook MAX hands-on
Filed under: Features, Laptops, Wireless
Damn, Everex clearly stepped up their game with the
Cloudbook MAX. Not that we want to harsh on the original
Cloudbook or anything, but this thing is definitely in a different class -- and the integrated XOHM WiMAX doesn't hurt, either. Check out some hands-on shots taken at CTIA below.
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Painting the town magenta
Filed under: Meta
After yesterday's very real and not-at-all-fake story about
Deutsche Telekom demanding Engadget discontinue using the color magenta, and today being what it is, we're putting up some new wallpaper on all the Engadget sites and ever so slightly tweaking
Engadget Mobile's logo. We hope you approve!
P.S. -In a related side note, our old pals at
Phone Scoop pinged us earlier this morning to let us know they've gone magenta for the day in an act of solidarity. Much love, Phone Scoop! Oh, and now so did
Phone Arena,
Fitch, and
GearBits! Also,
myself and some
other eds are
in on the action.
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HAVA player hits Nokia's internet tablets
Filed under: Handhelds, Home Entertainment
Monsoon's
HAVA HD streamer doesn't get quite as much love as the various Slingboxes, but it's a fine piece of kit with features Sling doesn't have
quite yet, like pause and rewind -- and now it's got one more supported client platform, as the company's using CTIA to roll out support for Nokia's Internet Tablet OS. That means the N800 and N810 can now get in on the action, and the quality looks pretty decent -- the crew over at Internet Tablet Talk got a chance to play with an early version, and they think it looks even better than the PC client. Hmm, looks like that
WiMAX N810 could double as a fairly decent portable TV, eh? Video after the break.
[Thanks, Joey]
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Daniel_K speaks out about his modded (better) Creative drivers
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
We think Creative acted pretty foolishly in forcing Daniel_K to
remove his modded drivers that allowed various Creative sound cards to work up to spec under Vista -- customers had already bought the hardware, after all -- but Daniel seems to understand why he's at the center of the firestorm. Speaking to Custom PC, Daniel Kawakami admits that promising faster releases for more donations probably raised some red flags, but he's not happy that Creative took to publicly threatening him on forums, and says that a simple private email would have probably worked a lot better. Just looking at the list of features Daniel managed to enable, however, it certainly looks like Creative should probably be spending time working on driver development instead of threatening its fans. Way to increase your relevance, Creative.
[Thanks, Alex]
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Blackberry Curve 8330 comes to Sprint
Filed under: Cellphones
We had heard
whispers about the Blackberry Curve hitting Sprint this month, and it looks like they were dead-on -- say hello to RIM's latest, the Curve 8330, all done up in black. Apart from looking way hotter than the
silver version that's made the rounds, you're getting GPS, a 2 megapixel camera with video recording, Bluetooth, "enhanced" web browsing, and the usual suite of Sprint music and TV services. $179 with a two-year contract later this month, says Sprint. One more shot after the break.
[Thanks, moochy989]
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Blue Wave 4 firmware for Samsung P2 previewed?
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
Samsung just launched the
Blue Wave 3 firmware for the
YP-P2 and T10 today, but we're already hearing whispers of Blue Wave 4 -- check out this image that's popped up on some forums. Apparently all you P2 owners out there can look forward to customizable (and shareable) UI skins, some new Bluetooth-based games, subway maps, custom EQ settings, password controls, and voice recording sometime in the future, but we have no idea when. Until then, feast your eyes on the whole image after the break.
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What Kind of Alternate Business Models Could ISPs Use?
esocid writes "After reading multiple stories over the past few months about the practices of ISPs within and outside of the US I have started to actually contemplate the benefits of the pay-per-use broadband service. Monopolistic practices have strangled broadband to the throttled money-draining cesspool that it is today. Would a pay-per-use option, or some other strategy, be better than the flat fee offered by companies today? When you think about it you are paying for an XMbps connection, when in actuality you get an 65-85%XMbps connection that you may or may not use all of the time. In addition to that, speaking as a Comcast customer, you get a throttled connection that limits your usage of certain protocols. Essentially you pay about $60-70 for a connection that you only squeeze maybe $35-45 worth of usage out of it. If a pay-per-usage option were implemented, how do you think the best way to charge for it would be? Is there some other scheme that would deliver customers the kind of QOS and value they seek?"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Summer of Code Deadline Extended 6 Days
mithro writes "If you thought that you had missed out on applying to the Google Summer of Code, you've just gotten a reprieve. The deadline for student submissions has been extended from the original April 1 to Monday April 7, 2008. To quote Leslie Hawthorn: 'This year, we experimented with the Google Summer of Code program timeline, providing one week for students to discuss project ideas with their mentors and then a single week to submit applications. The good news is that we've heard that overall application quality is much higher this year and that students have really benefited from the opportunity to have extra time to discuss their ideas with their potential mentors. However, we've still heard feedback from the community that it would be useful to provide more time for students to submit their applications, so we've done just that.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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