Gadgets Base

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 9th 2008 at 10:03AM
You already knew Nokia’s evolutionary N96 was all set to be shipped in the fall, but it’s about time Nokia came clean with the release information on its leaked-out-everywhere E-series. While Anssi Vanjoki, senior executive vice president of Nokia Markets, didn’t specify model numbers, it’s widely assumed that the E66 and E71 handsets are included when he states that “a group of E-series multimedia computers” will be brought to market in Q3. No mention of a price or expected launch regions, but at least you’ve a quarter to circle in your date book, yeah?

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Falling victim to ever increasing competition in the tech world, SanDisk has announced that it is closing it’s Fanfare video download service and ceasing production on it’s TakeTV device, which we reported on last year. That didn’t take long.

In a very business-like and curt fashion, SanDisk informed users through the Fanfare Website that “Fanfare beta has come to a conclusion, and the Fanfare application will be disabled as of 5/15/08.”

That means it took only eight months from announcement to it’s demise, which follows on the heal of similar video download services like Akimbo and Moviebeam.

The difference, however, is that San Disk is not hanging their users out to dry. Even though the Fanfare download service has been discontinued, those who have already invested in the TakeTV hardware can still enjoy it thanks to the TakeTV drag and drop feature which allows users to fill their gadget with non-fanfare digital videos from the internet, TV, etc. TakeTV has the ability to watch DivX and it’s open source variant xVid, and MPEG4 videos.

This ability has made TakeTV more attractive to the BitTorrent crowd and less appealing to those seeking a more structured, iTunes style downloading experience.

Hat Tip – Crave

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Claiming that Starbucks has breached its contract regarding interim Wireless coverage until AT&T’s service is fully implemented, T-Mobile is filing suit against both Starbucks and AT&T. The legal action is due to Starbuck’s current practice of offering the T-Mobile service, which can cost up to $10 a day and $20 a month, for free while the AT&T wireless service is implemented to over 7,000 Starbucks locations across the USA.

T-Mobile’s position is that the interim agreement granted them exclusive rights to wireless service in all Starbucks locations until the AT&T transition was complete. But as of today, only two Starbucks in the country actually have AT&T service. According to T-Mobile, the rest of the 7,000 Starbucks are giving TMobile’s wireless bandwidth away for free.

“Since T-mobile provides the resources and equipment to support Wi-Fi service in non-transitioned stores, it is T-Mobile alone that is bearing the cost and burden associated with this “free” Wi-Fi offer,” states the lawsuit. T-Mobile is demanding an injunction to prevent the Starbucks AT&T deal from moving forward and reimbursement for the costs and damages as a result of the Starbucks wireless policy that has impacted T-Mobile’s bottom line.

Hat tip – Digital Trends

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Recently, I obtained some information about a company known as NaviSis, as well as their latest products. All of them are based on Thunderbolt and Lightning technology, which allows tracking of their digital pens “with the use of the difference of velocity between light and sound”.

Considering that the up-and-coming Windows 7 may use a lot of touch-based technology, it might be time to look into ways of interfacing with the computer that do not include the keyboard and mouse. Navisis is surfing the wave of the future with four products that can convert a Laptop into a Tablet-PC like touchscreen.

The first is the Tablet Mouse, a wired or wireless e-Pen type mouse that allows the user to draw on the table without a pad. It will record whatever it is that you are writing or drawing digitally, so you can use it later for whatever digital application.

The Navinote has a magnetic clip used to hold writing or drawing paper. Like the Tablet Mouse, it is designed to record what you write.

The Laptop pen is designed to clip onto an ordinary laptop, turning a screen into a drawing space. The EZ Canvas takes the concept of a screen into a drawing room and completely amplifies it, making it a place that Da Vinci could work on.

Navisis is a Korean company, so I’m not certain when their products will make it overseas, if at all. I suppose if the Digital Pen market ever takes off, Navisis will be leading the charge.

Source

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In an attempt to bolster their in-flight entertainment offering, the JetBlue LiveTV division is finalizing plans to purchase Verizon’s Airfone network. JetBlue began testing their in-flight Wi-Fi service late last year, however it is nothing more than a glorified messaging service. The Wi-Fi service allows users to check email and also use instant messaging, in addition to watch television. JetBlue has been using the LiveTV service since 2002 and currently broadcasts DirecTV programming, no purchase price was announced for the sale. In a time when airlines are beginning to add extra charges for just about everything, its hard to understand just why they would spend additional money for new services.

Via [mocoNews]

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LG Electronics, world’s leading makers of cell phones, has come up with an amazing cell phone that offers advanced look as well as features to die for. As the name suggests, LG Verizon CHOCOLATE - BLUE ICE sports an attractive blue color body to give you a stylish look. Capture great images with the 1.3 mega pixel camera of LG Verizon CHOCOLATE - BLUE ICE that can be zoomed up to 2x.

Features

• Navigation Wheel.
• Touch Keypad with Vibration Feedback.
• Bluetooth Capable.
• Music Player with Dedicated Key.

LG Verizon CHOCOLATE - BLUE ICE lets you choose customizable sound effects and player themes. It comes with powerful speakers for music and also has a dedicated music key for easy access. LG Verizon CHOCOLATE - BLUE ICE comes with microSD Memory Port and enables you to store all your favorite music, photos and games.

Price and Availability

LG Verizon CHOCOLATE - BLUE ICE is available at a price of $ 299.99.

Source : LG

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FROM APPLETELL - Today at WWDC, after the iPhone 2.0 demo, they demoed many many apps created using the iphone SDK. The first App demoed is by Sega. It’s Super Monkey Ball. Hey, we saw this already. But today they’re showing us the last level. Out of a whopping 100. Super Monkey Ball… MORE »

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Enjoy music on the go with the advanced featured Meizu Mini Player M6 SL. Offering you all the functions like play, pause, stop, rewind, skip, this mini player incorporates an enhanced integrated navigator and jog lamp on time control. Meizu Mini Player M6 SL offers you along playback time with its built-in rechargeable Li-ion battery that plays up to 36 hours.

Features

• Supports DRM10 and Microsoft MTP.
• Hi-Fi treble and bass compensation system.
• Clock settings and screen saver settings.
• Built-in Microphone supports high quality recording.

Meizu Mini Player M6 SL sports an innovative power supply design to reduce the interferences and noises. It supports multi-languages like English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and Korean. It also supports photo album, slide show, BMP, JPG and GIF formats.

Price and Availability

Meizu Mini Player M6 SL is available at a price of $ 146.00.

Source : Meizu

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FROM APPLETELL - Steve, calling it the phone that changed phones, praised the iphone’s 90% customer satisfaction and 98% mobile browsing and overall greatness. What could come next? Steve talks about them running out of iPhones, and their next mountain to climb. It’s a big mystery…and it is 3G. The iPhone in more… MORE »

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We saw those demo pages come up recently for both of the new E-series devices from Nokia, which told us nothing more than to expect a release announcement coming soon. While the official word coming from Nokia is still limited to a solid no comment, industry sources are calling for a release as early as June 16, which is next week.

Both the E66 and E71 will feature a GPS as well as a 3.2-megapixel camera. The E66 is a slider style handset, while the E71 has a more traditional smartphone style with a full QWERTY keyboard.

Also, as we expected, the E66 and E71 demo pages have already been pulled, but save those links because they are likely to be up in time for Monday’s expected release.

Read [Yahoo! News]

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