Gadgets Base

Posted Jan 21st 2008 3:07AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Cellphones var Without a 3G iPhone announcement at MacWorld, Apple remains focused on increasing the penetration of their generation-one handset. True to the rumors circulating the intertubes last week, AT&T is now offering the iPhone to business customers. Plans break down as follows:

• 2 year commitment, voice service, and data plan required
• $45 per month for unlimited data, visual voicemail, and 200 SMSes; $55 ups the SMS limit to 1,500; $65 for unlimited everything
• An extra $25 per month nabs a 20MB montly data plan good for 29 countries, $60 per month ups the limit to 50MB
• Activate by 31 March and qualified accounts will receive a service credit of $25 per month good through 31 December, 2008 — yeah, that’s a sweet deal

We have a funny feeling that the timing of this has something to do with IBM’s imminent announcement of Lotus Notes mail for the iPhone. Now get on the horn to IT, they’ll be dreading your call.

[Thanks, Brandon B.]

Are you paranoid? Are you worried that people are watching you? For example, I know for most of “King of Queens” run, my wife and I could’ve sworn that they had a camera in our house. I wish I had one of these Hidden Camera Detectors so I could’ve sued “King of Queens” and had more money for my gadget habit.

The Hidden Camera Detector is so small you can take it anywhere. When a wireless camera is detected, an LED light flickers and an audible alarm sounds. Advanced circuitry reduces false alarms from background interference and a sensitive tuner allows you to automatically scan variable distances and channels. The unit detects frequencies from 50MHz to 3GHz.

Gimmie!

Suggested Price: $24.99

Posted Jan 20th 2008 10:12PM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video
Maybe you got word that the iPhone development community supposedly has a jailbreak method for v1.1.3 — but they’re not releasing it yet. (They claim they want to wait until the next firmware update in February that will enable the SDK, so Apple won’t patch the hack in the mean time.) We understand if you’re feeling a mite bit let down, so if you jumped the gun (or just didn’t hear the good news), restoring your phone back to trusty old v1.1.1 isn’t too big a feat. That supposed jailbreak video is after the break though, if you want to whet your whistle.

Canadian PC card users rejoice, Rogers has just announced a new four tiered rate plan for their PC cards. The Flex Rate Plan has options beginning at $65 per month and go up to $100 per month, ranging from 1GB of included data up to 5GB of data. The good news with these new plans is that if you are on Tier 1 and go over your 1GB of included data, you will simply move up and be billed at Tier 2 instead of having to pay huge overages based on the Tier 1 level. All plans are based on a 12, 24 or 36 month agreement and tethering is allowed.

A great option, although it would be nice to see a lower level at less than $65 per month for those looking for a simple basic service.

Via [EngadgetMobile]

Posted Jan 20th 2008 9:06PM by Evan Blass
Filed under: Peripherals, Portable Audio, Portable Video You’ve got to hand it to modder Mark Irwin, who did his fellow tinkerers proud by assembling a bunch of found objects into a very handy audio / video dock for the squat new iPod nano. The project is brilliant in its simplicity: Irwin just carved a nano-sized slot in an old slide magnifier, embedded some discarded speakers, and ended up with a super-handy viewing station on the cheap. Check out the video after the break for inspiration on how you, too, can help put an end to this national Made for iPod nightmare perpetrated by Griffin, Belkin, Monster, and their evil cohorts.

Toshiba have announced the Toshiba Portege G450, a phone that quite simply looks like no other. In fact, it looks more like a USB key with a few bells and whistles on it, and that’s not coincidence. Toshiba aimed to create a new mobile phone that acts as a Swiss Army Knife both in terms of function (well, not literally - there’s no knife in it!) and form.

More details and pics of the Toshiba G450 Portege phone after the jump.

Looking at the G450, you can’t help but be impressed by the way it looks. Looking like a combination of a Swiss Army Knife and an MP3 player, the G450 is surprisingly advanced, as you’d expect for a device bearing Toshiba’s Portege brand.

Featuring a USB port, MP3 player, OLED screen, 160MB of memory, and 3G and HSDPA, the G450 somehow manages to squeeze all of this into a device just 36mm x 98mm x 16mm in size, and weighing only 57g.

As a blogger without a landline broadband connection (just moved house, and my broadband service won’t be switched on until 25th Jan), I’d be lost without my Nokia E90 and its super-fast HSDPA to use as a modem. Having the same features available in such a tiny phone makes perfect sense for the traveller on the go, who doesn’t perhaps need all the bells and whistles of a high-end phone, but does need to be always connected to the Internet, and at a high data rate.

For those of you looking for such a device, that’s both stylish and super-portable, the Toshiba Portege G450 could be just what you’re looking for.

[Source: Akihabara News]

We thought the specs were all but set for the upcoming BlackBerry 9000, but according to the latest report they have changed, this time with some extra goodies. Originally the 9000 was set to have just 2.5G EDGE technology which has been upgraded to include UMTS and HSDPA support. In addition to the 3G coverage the operating system is expected to be launched as 4.3.2 with a fast upgrade to the brand new 5.0.0, and when we say fast it really means by the end of the year. 

Pricing and availability information have not yet been released, however some expect the announcement to come during the Wireless Enterprise Symposium in May.

Click through for a few more pics of the sleek looking 9000…

Via [Boy Genius Report]