Rob Beschizza

Ooma Telo: VoIP your wallet can believe in

Ooma sells lifetime VOIP subscriptions for $250, including excellent hardware: a great deal if you are even remotely capable of financial planning. Its new model, the Telo, also includes a matching DECT 6.0 handset.

I prefer the blocky look of the original box, but this one is more fashionable. The VOIP deal changes, too, with some give and take: you get more free calling and cheaper premium features (down to $10 a month), but voicemail is now among the premium features. Just get a physical answerphone for $8 or set up Google Voice.

Caller ID, call waiting, and 911 are still free of charge. The handset has MP3 ringtones, BlueTooth and Google Voice hookups. With the subscription, you get free number porting, a second line, automatic blacklisting of telemarketers, and call forwarding.

Press release [Ooma]

Rob Beschizza

Report: 30 percent of NYC iPhone calls dropped

It's true that bandwidth is precious -- so precious it must be rationed! So AT&T's "3G" cellular "network" goes, and iPhone users get to enjoy the results: almost a third of all calls placed on the small Apple get dropped in the Big Apple. One user, complaining to Apple after a fifth of his calls fritzed out on NYC, was told that his experience was unusually good. [Gizmodo]

Rob Beschizza

Peek lifetime subscriptions return

Peek's selling lifetime subscriptions again. $300 gets you the email-only handset and the WWAN hookup it needs, for ever. To demythologize that a little--let's say lifetime is 5 years--that's about $5 a month, or a third of the normal price. Great for people who hate bills, give gifts, or stay loyal to their gadgets. [Peek]

Rob Beschizza

Peek looks back on first year

Peek, the cheap (and good) email-only cellular handset, has been in business for a year. Dan Morel, Peek's chief geek, looks back on how close they came to doom, right from the outset:

Starting a business is mind-blowingly, exhausting. But let me tell you this, the first year thereafter is gutwrenching emotionally. The highs and lows of sales, reviews, customers, staff.... wow! There are so many firsts and so many new things you do. Your first big bugs, your first angry customers, your first bad reviews, problems with your model, sneaking costs, your first disaster/outages, these are all real things that come up that you don't think about in the starry-eyed days of launch.

If you don't own a smartphone, but keep stealing the smartphones of others in order to check your mail, this device--service is $15 a month, no contract-- is strongly recommended.

Lisa Katayama

Jobs returns to announce new iTunes, iPhone OS, and Nano with video

Steve Jobs made a surprise comeback at the Apple event in San Francisco today, announcing an upgraded operating system for the iPhone and iPod Touch, a new version of iTunes, and new generations and pricing for the Touch, the Shuffle, and the Nano.

Much to the disappointment of many fans, none of the new products include a still camera; however, the fifth generation Nano, which goes on sale today, has an integrated video camera with speakers so you can shoot and watch videos instantly. Two other key announcements made today were the iPhone and iPod Touch's new OS 3.1 and iTunes 9, both available online now.

In addition to the video camera, the new Nano has a pedometer that can be synced with Nike Plus, an FM radio, and a voice recorder. It's available in seven colors at $149 for the 8GB version and $179 for the 16GB. Apple also unveiled a new and improved Shuffle in five new colors with the option for multiple playlists, a voice that speaks to you about battery life, and controls integrated into headphone wires. The new Shuffle comes in a $59 2GB version, a $79 4GB version, and a limited edition stainless steel 4GB version sells for $99. Also announced were new pricing and a faster graphics for the iPod Touch (8GB at $199, 32GB at $299, and 64GB at $399). The original iPod retains its $249 price point, but now holds 160GB instead of the previous 120GB.

iTunes 9 has several new exciting features including media sharing, an on-screen app manager, and a redesigned Store. Genius Mixes, an extension of the music recommending Genius function, creates playlists from the iTunes library based on songs that go great together. Syncing has been improved, and a new interface for managing iPhone and iPod Touch apps allows users to drag and drop and rearrange apps on-screen from the iTunes app. Media can be shared through Home Sharing, which allows up to five computers in one house to copy the contents of their iTunes libraries freely. Finally, the new Store has a cleaner looks and and two new features, iTunes LP and iTunes Extra, which provide photos, liner notes, exclusive interviews, etc for music and movies, respectively.

The iPhone's new OS 3.1, which is available today at the iTunes store, will include a Genius function for Apps that recommends apps much like how Genius in iTunes recommends music. It also includes Genius Mixes, peer to peer gaming, and ring tone downloads.

Jobs, who has been absent from the last couple of Apple events due to health problems, prefaced the announcements by confirming that he had had a liver transplant five months ago. He thanked the donor — a twenty-something year old who died in a car crash — for his generosity.

Apple has sold 30 million iPhones in just over two years, with 1. 8 billion apps downloaded from the App Store. Jobs claimed the Nano is "by far the most popular music player in the world" with over $100 million units sold. Similarly, iTunes, which is now available in 23 countries, is the number one music retailer in the world, with 8.5 billion songs sold on 100 million accounts with credit cards.

Lisa Katayama

$1000 iPhone cases belong to samurai, at least in spirit

These iPhone cases from Japanese phone company Softbank were designed specifically to look like they belong to samurai. Each design is themed after a famous warrior's characteristics &mdash for example, the one with the crescent moon would have belonged to Date Masamune, a warlord whose helmet had a crescent moon on it, too. They're made of lacquer with gold specks, which only partially explains the $1000 price tag.

[Japanese press release via Cnet]

Steven Leckart

"Sorry, sir, but Twitter is down... Yes, again."

August 17, 1955.

photo from Adolph B. Rice Studio via The Library of Virginia

Steven Leckart

Shoe Cell Phone Holder: It's For Real?!

Only $19 from Amazon:

The perfect place for the fashion-plate to park her cell phone... Comes with built-in channel for recharging cable

Oh, and did I mention the manufacturer is called "Perfect Solutions"?

As if the company's ingenuity wasn't already evident by the hideous make that, ridiculous instantly-classic product you see before you.

Rob Beschizza

Nokia N900 tablet runs Maemo, runs flash, likes money

Nokia's N900, a well-heeled angle on the shaky "mobile internet device" category, shall run Maemo 5, a cut of linux intended for heavy internet use. At 800 pixels wide, the display will better cellphones at showing web-pages, and high-end features abound: there's a 5 megapixel camera, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Flash compatibility, 32GB of storage, GPS and TV-out. Such a shame it isn't a cellphone! Update: It is a cellphone! Damn!

Furthermore, at 500 Euros, it'll have to justify itself as a "netbook replacement" for those not already fond of Nokia's past lineup of internet tablets.

Product Page [Nokia]

Steven Leckart

Hands On w/HTC's myTouch

I dropped by Wired to talk about HTC's latest Android phone.

Rob Beschizza

Behold! The most hideous cellphone in the universe

Jintailan's 999 is pitched as an iPhone mini with a dedicated flower pattern and gravity sensor. Sold by eemobi for $120, you get a 2.6" display with 240x320 pixels, MP3 ringtones, a 1.3 megapixel camera, a gig of storage and "7 common games." Compatibility with local GSM bands is your deal to work out.

No, you do not get a free teddy bear.

READ THE REST

Rob Beschizza

Palm rather likes defecting Apple employees, actually

Two years ago, Bloomberg reports, Palm's Ed Colligan rejected an offer from Steve Jobs to join Silicon Valley's hiring cartel.

Jobs, Apple's CEO, told Colligan he was concerned that Rubinstein was recruiting Apple employees. "We must do whatever we can to stop this," Jobs said in the communications.

The details of these agreements not to hire one anothers' employees aren't known, but as the U.S. Justice Department is "investigating possible collusion," it stands to reason that Palm would find reason to turn down the offer, then leak it to the press.

Colligan, you'll remember, infamously dismissed the iPhone's chances like so: "We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in."

That's true! It was more like waltzing in.

Rob Beschizza

iPhone users loathe AT&T

From Computerworld:

Owners of Apple's new iPhone 3GS love the device, but more than half of them hate AT&T, the smartphone's exclusive mobile carrier in the U.S., according to a just-released survey.

A part of it is that the carrier serves as a scapegoat for any problem it can be convincingly assigned. But it does have serious service quality problems, and the benefit of an exclusivity deal (and a marketplace in general) that means it doesn't have to fix them.

Lisa Katayama

Factron Quattro case for iPhone 3GS is fancy and expensive

For the ultimate in iPhone 3GS protection and to take advantage of its camera function, you could get the Factron Quattro for iPhone SP, a case made from leather, carbon fiber, and stainless steel. The case is just under $200, and additional lenses like the fish-eye, wide angle, and macro zoom are about $15-50 each. I think this is only available in Japan though.

Product page (Thanks, Hitoshi!)

Rob Beschizza

LG BL40 Chocolate looks like a 'lil remote control

LG's BL40 Chocolate is longer than most phones, and Gizmodo's John Herman seems disappointed by the first video of it to leak out:

It's been clear since the earliest teases that the BL40 is a streeeeeetched phone, to the point that LG had to design a few special interface elements to take advantage of--or to work around--the screen's odd proportions. But in promo videos, the BL40 just looked a little, I don't know, bigger.

The problem is that it looks too much like a remote control--but is that a bad thing? On the other hand, maybe it appeals to me simply because it's both unusual and simple. The hands-on review is from from Mobiles.co.uk.

Rob Beschizza

Lanner L488, the ultimate dumbphone

I'm fond of this chunky, no-nonsense, no-features handset from m8cool. One thing it offers over comparable basic handsets available in the U.S.: a display able to show a whole damned phone number on one line. Take that, Motofone F3! It's otherwise junk, yes.

Rob Beschizza

Stringer takes chairman spot at Sony Ericsson

Well now. And a new president, Bert Nordberg.

The hands-on involvement could be midwifery for the PSP Phone: Sony won't let its joint venture go it alone, so the joint venture has to come back under the wing. [Sony Ericsson]

Steven Leckart

Power On Self Test: Wood BlackBerry

Available on Etsy

Rob Beschizza

Nokla has no class (but plenty of swivel)

This bootleg "Nokla E81" uses a remarkable swiveling design far more innovative than the conservative phones Nokia itself pumps out these days. Remember when it used to be famous for oddities? [Justamp via Engadget]

Lisa Katayama

Review: A week with the Panasonic Link-to-Cell home phone

Brian and I live and work at home, and we have three phone lines and four handsets that are constantly demanding our attention from different parts of the house. It's a little hard to keep track of. That's why I was excited to try out the Panasonic KX-TH1211 Link to Cell &mdash a land line that can make and retrieve calls from up to two cell phones via Bluetooth. I figured it would solve the problem of too many phones if we just had one handset to keep track of. But while the idea is novel, it wasn't actually as useful as I had initially expected.

First of all, there is not a single corner of our house that has good AT&T reception. (Yes, that's right, AT&T has no reception in a popular San Francisco neighborhood. I have no idea why.) So we scrapped that idea of trying to link the Link to Cell to Brian's iPhone. This is no fault of Panasonic's, of course &mdash you just have to have reception. T-Mobile gets a couple of bars by my desk, so I linked my Sony Ericsson to the Panasonic base unit and used it for the past week.

The set-up was easy and pretty much the same as any other Bluetooth device. Once it was hooked up, I could use my cell phone minutes to make calls from the land line &mdash so I probably saved a few bucks on my home phone bill. That's nice! One problem for me, though, is that Link to Cell didn't allow me to link my cell phone to both itself and a Bluetooth headset. I like to take my work phone calls hands-free so I can type and talk at the same time. While I was testing, I had to disconnect my cell phone from the land line base unit it each time I wanted to do a phone interview.

Throughout the week, the phone talked to me &mdash it told me who was calling, which was convenient for screening calls while I was preoccupied, but also annoying when I needed my concentration not to be broken by a robotic voice. Also, if somebody's using the land line, calls to the cell phone got routed back to my cell phone. In a high phone-traffic household, the whole purpose of the convenience of one phone is defeated.

If you're the type of person who likes to come home, put your cell phone away on its charger in the second floor bathroom corner, and not have to worry about running upstairs to get it when you hear it ring, then for $80 this is a great phone for you. Or if you have your own office with a lot going on and no time to be fishing for one phone or the other or to check who's calling on your caller ID or to keep track of appointments, then the talking robot voice may be a great help. But if you're like me, and you're just trying to keep things simple at the desk or at home in a single-story house that it's not that big, then you probably don't need it.

Product page [Panasonic]

Lisa Katayama

iPhone charging dock made from cedar wood

Do you love your gadgets just as much as you love nature? This dual iPhone-iPod docking station found on Etsy is made of real cedar wood, so it smells lovely and looks like a little log cabin just for your gadgets.

Link

Rob Beschizza

Zune HD pre-orders open

Microsoft's Zune HD comes out on September 15 and will be available in 16GB and 32GB models. [Engadget]

Lisa Katayama

Rob Beschizza

Reminder: A few weeks back we reviewed the Touch Pro 2, out this week on T-Mobile for $350 w/contract.

Steven Leckart

Review: 1 Week W/OtterBox's Defender Case

The Defender series is OtterBox's top of the line hard, weather-resistant cases for mobile phones. The phone slots into a polycarbonate shell which is then covered by a Silicone skin. There's also a thin, clear screen cover to prevent any scratching.

If you carry an iPhone (1st-gen, 3G, 3GS) or many of the handsets from Nokia, Palm, HTC, Samsung, RIM/BlackBerry and Motorola, the Defender is a solid option.

I've been using toting around my iPhone 3GS in one for a week.

A few caveats: The edges of the screen are harder to finger due to the case's thick ridge. The thin plastic membrane does create some air pockets on the screen. The case makes your phone unmistakably beefy and harder to pocket, especially if you wear "skinny jeans" (which I do... yeah yeah).

Why I'm into it: I'm actually not too concerned about dropping the phone or scratching and/or cracking the screen. My enemy is... sand.

The case I used to carry is comprised of two pieces, a top and bottom, and no screen cover. Every time I hit the beach, I bring back least a little bit of sand in my pockets and car. Eventually, when I took the phone out of the old case, I found a series of sand grains burrowed into the plastic backing of my $$$ phone. WEAK.

Since switching to the Defender, I haven't found even one bit of dirt, sand or gunk inside the case. The Silicone layer is easy to grip. It's relatively lightweight (1.9 oz.). The port covers fit snugly to ensure a good seal (I'll admit it's a tad annoying to open/close the bottom flap every time you need to charge the phone). And the back of the case has that little window so, you know, people can still see I'm toting an iPhone (if that's important).

OK, I'm not going to say $50 isn't a lot to spend on a case. It's obscene. Then again, so is the sight of a broken smartphone.

If you spend anytime outdoors or have butterfingers, the Defender is well worth it. While I haven't experienced any epic drops (and I'm not about to try to break my phone), I've banged this case/phone around much more than usual — short drops on my desk, tumbles from the center console to the floor of my car, etc. Overall, It feels, more or less, tough as nails.

The Defender comes with a belt holster, which I'm not using and never plan to.

Lisa Katayama

iPhone playing cards

Before handheld gadgets were the norm, I used to like shuffling playing cards when I was bored. (Remember when they used to give playing cards out in airplanes? I'd sit in my seat and shuffle the deck for hours.) Now people just fiddle with their iPhones during long periods of down time. With this deck of iPhone playing cards, you can do both at the same time. Sort of.

[
Meninos Store via Craziest Gadgets]

Rob Beschizza

USAA to allow check deposit with iPhone photos

USAA, a bank that operates almost entirely online, will accept website deposits made using photos of checks taken with the iPhone. Until now, it's required ultra high-res scans of checks, made with an unpleasant Java application that runs in on normal computers' web browsers.

Here's Susan Stellin of the New York Times:

"We're essentially taking an image of the check, and once you hit the send button, that image is going into our deposit-taking system as any other check would," said Wayne Peacock, a USAA executive vice president.

Customers will not have to mail the check to the bank later; the deposit will be handled entirely electronically, and the bank suggests voiding the check and filing or discarding it. But to reduce the potential for fraud, only customers who are eligible for credit and have some type of insurance through USAA will be permitted to use the deposit feature. Mr. Peacock said that about 60 percent of the bank's customers qualify.

Bank Will Allow Customers to Deposit Checks by iPhone [NYT]

Rob Beschizza

Nokia's RX-51 tablet

It's been making these things for years, and here's the latest, spotted just in time to dovetail with the latest slavering iTablet rumors. A 5 megapixel camera and 3G internet are the nifty features. [Kaskus.us via Mobile Bulgaria and Engadget]

Rob Beschizza

Moto's Macho r765IS

The Motorola r765IS, which meets the requirements of Mil Spec 810F, responds only to loudly barked imperative commands. [Sprint via Engadget]

Rob Beschizza

Sony's new Readers: make mine the Pocket Edition

Of the two new Sony e-book readers, it's the $200 pocket-sized model that appeals to me most--assuming, of course, that it's really pocket sized.