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Current News
January 8, 2009 Palm unveils Palm webOS and Palm PreThe much-anticipated Palm press event today and it did not disapoint. Palm unveiled its new Palm webOS (codenamed Nova during development) and the Palm Pre, the first device to use it.
The Palm WebOS will be your door to the Internet, promised Ed Colligan as he introduced the new OS. Gesture driven, it introduces the metaphor of a deck of cards where every application is a card. All navigation is done with gestures such as flick, tap, swipe. Another very interesting feature is that everything is saved all the time, doing away with the need to have save buttons.
There are a couple of other highlights:
- A new technology called Synergy helps tie all your information together. For example, all phone calls and SMS with a particular person are organized as a single conversation.
- Exchange OTA is also supported.
- A notification bar at the bottom will help notify you of incoming messages or other system alerts.
- Developers should also like the new OS as it is built with industry standard tools such as HTML, CSS and Javascript.
Then, the new new Palm Pre was introduced. Powered by a new TI OMAP processor, it comes with EV-DO Rev.A connectivity, 3.1-inch QVGA touchscreen display with a 'gestures area', a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 8GB of storage, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Blueooth 2.0 with A2DP, built-in GPS, accelerometer, proximity and light sensors, a 3MP camera with LED flash,3.5mm headphone jack, and a removable battery. It will also come with a new inductive wireless charger called Touchstone.
Sprint will be the exclusive launch partner for the Palm Pre. Sprint has already launched a microsite for the Pre where you can sign up to be notified when it becomes available. A precise release date was not provided but it will be sometime in the first half of 2009. Pricing has not been revealed either.
 Nokia E63 NAM heading to the United StatesNot a big surprise but Nokia confirmed today that the Nokia E63 is headed to the United States (and hopefully Canada as well) in the coming weeks.
"Consumers have stated loud and clear that there is a demand for devices with a QWERTY form factor that are optimized for the United States," said Alessandro Lamanna, Vice President of Sales, Retail, Nokia Americas.
The Nokia E63 NAM will run the Symbian OS 9.2 with S60 3.1 Edition and will come with quad-band (850/900/1800/1900MHz) GSM/GPRS/EDGE and dual-band (850/1900MHz) UMTS/HSDPA connectivity, a 2.36-inch QVGA display, 110 MB internal dynamic memory, a QWERTY thumb keyboard, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, a 2MP camera, microSDHC (up to 8GB) memory card slot, a 3.5mm stereo headset jack, and a 1500mAh battery. It will be available in either ultramarine blue or ruby red. It will also come with a Files on Ovi subscription of 1GB of online file storage for free.
The Nokia E63 NAM will sell for US$279 from www.nokiausa.com, the Nokia Flagship stores in New York and Chicago and other retail channels.
ASUS Eee phone coming in March?According to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News, Asustek is set to unveil its first Eee phone in March. Little is known about this new phone except that it will target the lower end of the market.
At one point, the Eee phone was to have been unveiled in 2008 but the company pushed back the launch. No reason was given for the delay.
Hopefully we will soon learn more about this phone but don't expect a cutting edge device. Then again, the original Eee PC was not one either and look at the effect it had on the notebook market!
 Nokia ends production of Nokia N810 Internet Tablet - WiMAX EditionLess than a year after its release, Nokia announced that it has stopped production of its N810 Internet Tablet - WiMAX Edition. Officially, Nokia indicated that the device had "reached the end of its lifecycle" but the very slow deployment of WiMAX in the U.S. certainly contributed to this decision.
WiMAX, a competitor to LTE technology, has only be deployed by Clearwire in Baltimore and Portland (just announced this week) to date.
Nokia did not rule out future WiMAX products and said that it would "continue to follow the technology and its evolution." January 7, 2009 Sony unveils netbook-sized Vaio P notebookSony is getting into the netbook game without really getting into it. The Sony Vaio P may be the size of most netbooks but it comes with a number of extra features (and price) normally not found in this class of products.
The Vaio P notebook is powered by a 1.33GHz Intel Z530 Atom processor and Windows Vista. It comes with 2GB RAM, an 8-inch display (running at 1600 by 768 pixel resolution), a 60GB hard drive (with 64GB and 128GB SSD options), MemoryStick and SD card slots, a GPS option, another for Verizon's EV-DO network, a webcam, 2 USB ports and an extra dongle that provides VGA, Ethernet and an additional USB port. It will also feature an instant-on feature using the Xross Media Bar interface, allowing users to bypass Vista for quick access to media and Internet access.
Unlike most netbooks, Sony has done away with the trackpad, replacing it with a pointer nub in the middle of the keyboard. It measures 24.4 by 11.9 by 2 centimeters (9.6 by 4.7 by 0.78 inches) and weighs about 0.64 kilograms (1.4 pounds).
Pricing will start at USD$899 when it is released. With options, prices can reach USD$1,499.
 SDXC: Next generation SD standard promises up to 2 TB of storageThe SD Association announced a new memory card specification today at CES 2009. The new specification, called SDXC (for eXtended Capacity), promises capacities up to 2 terabytes as well as read/write speeds of 104Mbps initially but ramping up to 300Mbps later.
It will retain the SD interface although I suspect that devices will need to be able to support the new specification to take advantage of these cards. In other words, don't expect it to work with your current devices.
Full specifications will be released in the first quarter of 2009. But we already know that it will use Microsoft's exFAT file system to support its large capacity and interoperability in a broad range of PCs, consumer electronics and mobile phones.
A 2TB SDXC memory card will be able to store 100 HD movies, 60 hours of HD recording, 17,000 fine-grade photos, or more than 4,000 RAW images.
With the standard not released yet, I expect it will take some time for the new cards and devices that can support them to hit the street.
 HTC Iolite revealedThanks to Expansys, the HTC Iolite has been revealed prior to its official HTC announcement. Based on the specs published, it would appear that HTC is positioning this in the middle of their device catalogue.
The HTC Iolite will be powered by a 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 processor and Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional with the HTC TouchFLO 3D user interface. It will come with quad-band (850/900/1800/1900MHz) GSM/GPRS/EDGE and dual-band (900/2100MHz) HSDPA/HSUPA connectivity, a 2.8-inch QWVGA display, 288MB RAM and 512MB ROM, GPS and A-GPS ready, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and A2DP, 3.2MP camera, microSD card slot, and an 1100mAh battery.
At this point, there is no word on when the HTC Iolite will be announced and what it will sell for. There is word either on whether we will see a North American version.
 BlackBerry Curve 8900 lands at T-Mobile USA in FebruaryRIM and T-Mobile have announced that the BlackBerry Curve 8900 will become part of the T-Mobile device catalogue in February. "T-Mobile is thrilled to bring our customers such an elegant and powerful way to communicate with the important people in their lives," said Travis Warren, director, device marketing, T-Mobile USA. "The BlackBerry Curve 8900 offers T-Mobile customers the benefit of a full-QWERTY keyboard in the thinnest BlackBerry smartphone yet."
The BlackBerry Curve 8900 is powered by a 512MHz processor and the BlackBerry Handheld Software v4.6. It comes with quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity, a thumb QWERTY keyboard, a 2.4-inch HVGA (480 by360) display, 256MB onboard flash memory, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi with support for T-Mobile's Hotspot@Home service, Bluetooth 2.0, built-in GPS, a 3.2MP auto-focus camera, a microSDHC card slot (supporting cards up to 16GB), and a 1400mAh battery. It measures 109 by 60 by 13.5 millimeters and weighs 110 grams.
The BlackBerry Curve 8900 smartphone from T-Mobile should be available in February at T-Mobile retail stores, select authorized dealers, and online at www.T-Mobile.com. January 6, 2009Pandora releases Pandora 2.0 for iPhonePandora, a great Internet radio streaming service, has released an update for its iPhone application. Pandora Radio is your own FREE personalized radio now available to stream music on your iPhone.
Among the new features you will find in Pandora 2.0 for iPhone are a song progress bar that is displayed when you tap the album art, the ability to create a station from the currently playing song or artist, artist bios, the ability to play song samples for your bookmarked songs, and more.
The embedded links taking you directly to iTunes and the just announced ability to download songs over 3G will also make it much easier to buy songs that you likeas you hear them.
Like earlier versions, Pandora 2.0 for iPhone is free.
Note: The title link will take you directly to iTunes but Pandora is only available in the United States.
 HP updates Mini 2000 netbooks with Mini 2140Hewlett-Packard has updated its 2100 Mini-Note PC family with the new Mini 2140. The form factor remains much the same but under the hood, you'll find some nice changes.
HP has replaced the Via C7 processor with a 1.60GHz Intel Atom N270 processor with a 945GSE Express chipset and Mobile Intel GMA 950 graphics. The 8.9-inch display has made way for a 10.1-inch HP Illumi-Lite LED display. The Mini 2140 also supports up to 2GB RAM, comes with a number of storage options (5400RPM or 7200RPM 160GB options or 80GB SSD), Wi-Fi, optional Bluetooth 2.0, 2 USB 2.0 ports, and Express Card/54 and SD card slots.
A number of operating system options are also to be offered, including Windows Vista Home Basic 32 or Business 32, Windows XP Professional or Home, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, and FreeDOS.
The HP Mini 2140 should be available later this month. The base configuration will start at USD$499. Other Recent Stories
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