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Matias' Tune Blocker alleviates the need to ever push "cancel sync" again

by Jacob Schulman, posted Jan 7th 2009 at 6:41PM


If hitting that "Cancel Sync" button in iTunes is just too terrifying of a task, the Tune Blocker from Matias is here to save your day. For the low price $24.95, you get the three-foot cable which allows you to toggle between data syncing and charging only modes. For another five bucks, you can score another three-feet of mouseless anti-syncing bliss, or you could just take the economical high road and stick to the included cable that comes with your iPod or iPhone out-of-the-box and save your cash for a much more useful purchase later on.

Impossible-to-use Hello Kitty phone taunts you with feigned cuteness

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jan 7th 2009 at 6:33PM


We can't picture this thing up against a head, and frankly, we don't want to. The monstrosity you're looking at here is somehow a phone, but in an overzealous attempt to completely destroy it with Hello Kitty branding, it's been formed into that fricking cat head -- a shape that makes absolutely no sense for a phone whatsoever, may we add. We're pretty sure you could make little kids cry on command by pulling this out of a pocket, so even if you can't imagine actually talking into this thing (we certainly can't), maybe it's worth the buy anyway. Just saying.

[Via PMP Today, thanks Daisy and Brian]

Nokia N810 WiMAX reaches 'end of life'

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jan 7th 2009 at 5:46PM Breaking News


Well, that certainly was a quick little experiment, wasn't it? Just months after quietly becoming available, Nokia has just as quietly slapped an "end of life" label on the N810 WiMAX Edition, officially ending Nokia's consumer-level support for the wireless standard -- for the time being, anyhow. Though we've been able to confirm that the discontinuation is official, no word was given as to why it fell off the market so quickly -- Nokia inststs that it was a "natural" end of life -- but if we had to take a stab at it, we'd guess the Baltimore-only availability had something to do with it.

[Via MobileBurn]

Logic Wireless' Logic Bolt makes luminous appearance at CES

by Sean Cooper, posted Jan 7th 2009 at 4:45PM


Logic Wireless, a new startup has jumped right into the CES mobile fray with this, the mini projecting Logic Bolt. Logic Wireless assumed all rights to this device from ChinaKing -- which we saw early in the summer of 2008 -- and have tuned it up and have it here at the show. Featuring a quad-band GSM chipset, 3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, projected display size of 36 to 64 inches, and a rated talk time of 2 to 3 hours. Video can apparently blast on for two hours or more using content on the phone or VGA input from other devices. Logic Wireless aims to ship a dual-mode GSM / CDMA set with live video conferencing, four times brighter projector, and Windows Mobile supplanting the current Java OS sometime in the future. For a suggested $100 on-contract price or $600 off, we're thinking if they can make this happen, we're definitely going to be picking one up.

[Via Gearlog]

Court blocks Sprint from offering service in iPCS areas

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jan 7th 2009 at 4:26PM


It didn't manage to block the Sprint / Clearwire merger, but iPCS is still scoring little victories for itself in its continued fight with Sprint over alleged violations of the exclusivity agreement it's had in place with the (much, much larger) carrier for nearly a decade. An Illinois court has now ruled that Sprint can't offer service in areas where iPCS has a presence, while Sprint's partners have their fate decided in the hallowed halls of justice starting March 30. iPCS covers seven states, so it's actually a pretty big blow to Sprint to have the footprint ganked from their icy clutches; guess they'll just have to make it up with Android-powered sub wins.

[Via Phone Scoop]

HTC said to be dipping into Ericsson's silicon for 3.5G chipsets

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jan 7th 2009 at 3:40PM


Digitimes claims that HTC intends to launch a 10-strong mix of WinMo and Android handsets in 2009 -- sounds about right, if we had to guess -- and not all of 'em will be Qualcomm powered. Apparently, HTC's HSPA devices will employ guts from Ericsson's Mobile Platforms group, and as lucrative contracts go, the HTC's chipset contract going into a serious Android year has to be at or near the top. Funny how HTC makes the X1 for Sony Ericsson and Ericsson makes chips for HTC, but business is business, eh?

[Via wmpoweruser.com]

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic comes to the UK on January 23

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jan 7th 2009 at 2:26PM


Half of the would-be buyers are probably holding out for the N97 at this point, but for what it's worth, the first S60 5th Edition device is ready to rock in the UK this month. Starting January 23, 5800 XpressMusics will be shipping for £249 (about $377) -- while Moscow residents are already totally over with it and onto the next great thing, by the way, and North Americans can keep right on lusting for a few more months. Love that launch stagger.

[Via All About Symbian]

SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone demoed on video, coming in Q1

by Darren Murph, posted Jan 7th 2009 at 1:40PM


No surprises here, but Sling Media has created a new SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone portal on its website in order to accomplish two important tasks. 1) To announce that it will indeed be submitted to Apple for certification this quarter and 2) to show off a new video of the software in action. If you just can't wait, head to the read link and mash play.

Virgin Mobile: bad economy is just what we needed

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jan 7th 2009 at 1:14PM

Scant few companies prefer a crappy economy in which to do business, but Virgin's latest financials suggest that this kind of operating environment might just be the sweet spot. 'Course, Virgin's US offerings are all about "value" -- prepaid and all -- and it seems that the Sprint-based MVNO is getting mad play from that angle, reporting close to a quarter million net adds in the fourth quarter of '08. For the record, that compares with forecasts of 60 to 100K -- and yes, granted, they closed on the Helio deal in the quarter, but beating estimates is always awesome.

[Via mocoNews]

LG's CTO flaunts GD910, we get it on video

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jan 7th 2009 at 12:34PM


LG finally figured out how to do a watch phone that doesn't make us physically ill, and fortunately, the company's CTO happened to be sporting one at the press conference today. Head on over to Engadget to check out the very device that -- let's face it -- will probably be on your wrist later this year.

China finally awards 3G licenses, winners no surprise

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jan 7th 2009 at 12:29PM

If you thought Vodafone or Telefonica would somehow emerge as a big winner in China's 3G spectrum launch... well, yeah, think again. China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom have now been armed with licenses for TD-SCDMA, WCDMA (UMTS and HSPA that is), and CDMA2000 / EV-DO, respectively, meaning the world's largest carrier will be rolling out China's homegrown 3G standard -- not to say Unicom's or Telecom's footprints will be anything to sneeze at, either. In fact, in the long term, it's suggested that Unicom and Telecom will actually be able to grow faster since they're using standards that other countries have actually heard of, but for the next few years, Mobile's still the safe bet if you absolutely, positively must have the most insane Chinese coverage available.

[Via mocoNews]

LG shows off GD910 Watch Phone, production later this year

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jan 7th 2009 at 11:28AM Breaking News


Now that we have serious buy-in from a major phone manufacturer to bring watch phones to market, we're just going to go ahead and say it: the Dick Tracy era has begun. LG's just announced that the GD910 will start production later in 2009, featuring 7.2Mbps HSDPA, Bluetooth, speakerphone, video calling, voice recognition, an integrated music player, and a touchscreen in case those three side-mounted buttons don't cut it. We hope to have a hands-on shortly!

Verizon to embrace Kindle rivals, third party devices

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Jan 7th 2009 at 11:12AM

Looks like Amazon may soon be getting some competition for the hearts of the Kindle-loving literati over at the Algonquin. In a pre-CES interview with Reuters, Verizon's Tony Lewis -- the man in charge of their Open Development program -- doesn't see the current state of the economy as halting production of e-readers or other nonessential consumer electronics. "Competitors to the Kindle are out there and ready," the man said. "In 2009 I'd expect them to come to the market." To date, the company's certified 29 third party devices to run on the carrier, a new attitude that seems to have come about when they realized the bucketfuls of cash they could be raking in if they were a little more... well, open to these sorts of things. If you're a vendor, feel free to peep their booth this week at CES. We're sure you'll be more than welcome.

[Via Moco News]

Palm's new website devoid of dedicated PDAs

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jan 7th 2009 at 11:05AM


Palm is kicking off the new year with an all-new site (worthy of an entirely new platform, perhaps?), and while that's not really news in and of itself, it's interesting to see that they've now completely cleansed the most visible pages of traditional PDAs -- you know, those crazy things Palm made its name building. The move was expected since Colligan announced last year that they'd be moving to a phone-only model, but what wasn't expected was the optical illusion Palm's trying to pull here. Seriously, the depth of field makes the 800w looks like an 800w nano, which, you know, isn't an entirely accurate representation.

Pantech's SKY IM-S390 "Cupid" doesn't inspire a lot of love

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jan 7th 2009 at 9:20AM


We're not sure why Pantech would bother attaching such a lofty, lovely name to such a positively pedestrian handset, but let's be straight: any manufacturer with a phone named "Duke" probably works in ways we don't fully understand. Like just about every domestic Korean handset you can find, this one features a T-DMB tuner -- which is cool, we guess -- and it's just 12.5mm thick on the slim battery. Thing is, the QVGA display and lousy 1.3-megapixel cam aren't going to turn any heads, so we s'pose they'll be leaning on the cute name and the three-pack of cute colors to do that, eh?

[Via Unwired View]
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