Section: Communications, Smartphones  There certainly has been no shortage of Android news as of late. There was the T-Mobile release of the myTouch 3G in August, the Hero coming to Sprint, the Motorola CLIQ, and the version 1.6 Donut upgrade. Now Samsung is piling on more news with the announcement of yet another T-Mobile Android phone, the Samsung Behold II, which will put T-Mobile at four Android handsets by the time of its release.
The Behold II, as referenced by its name, is a follow up to the feature phone Samsung Behold, which did not feature Android. Though it features a new OS, the Behold II actually features the same TouchWiz interface as the original. TouchWiz features a 3D cube on the main screen with commonly used apps mapped to its faces, with YouTube, music, web, photos, video, and Amazon MP3 mapped at the start. Aside from the OS, the phone offers a 3.2 inch touchscreen, a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, and up to 16GB of storage space. The Behold II looks like it could be the least desirable of the T-Mobile Android phones. Given the strange UI, the newness of MotoBlur, the Behold II looks like its main goal is to attract feature phone users into the smartphone market. There’s no mention of pricing and only a “before the holidays” release date from T-Mobile, so comparison to the other three Android phones on the carrier is mostly speculation. It’s doubtful that anyone will switch to T-Mobile for the phone, unless they are huge fans of AMOLED screens, or really, really like 3D cubes. Read [PC World] Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones Last week during a two day distracted driving summit, President Obama signed an executive order banning federal employees from texting while driving when in government vehicles. In addition, the DOT will ban texting and restrict the use of cell phones by truck and interstate bus drivers. To further drive the point home, school bus drivers who have been convicted of texting while driving will find themselves barred from getting a commercial license. The DOT also plans to introduce permanent restrictions on the use of cell phones by rail workers as well. This comes after several recent train accidents, several with fatalities, caused by drivers who were texting rather than paying attention to what they were doing. Federal employees will also be banned from texting while driving in their own private vehicles if those vehicles are being used for government business. It's hoped the executive order and new restrictions will help set an example for safe driving. The dangers of texting while driving are becoming more and more of a concern as texting's popularity grows. A PSA in the U.K. graphically shows the horrific consequences of a teen's choice to text while driving.. Texting has eclipsed e-mail as the most popular way to keep in touch among young people, and they are the age group most likely to text while driving. While most states have laws banning talking on a phone while driving or requiring hands free only devices to do so, anti-texting laws are not yet commonplace but are increasing. A proposed bill in the Senate would reduce federal highway funding to states not willing to ban texting while driving. I've seen many teens and young adults brag about texting while driving, or claim the studies saying a driver texting while driving has the same reduced reflexes as a drunk driver are false and that they can do both just fine. Some even brag about how good they are at driving with their knees! As a pedestrian I have lost count of the times I've been nearly run over by a driver who was busy talking or texting on their phone and couldn't be bothered to pay attention to the road. If you text while driving, STOP. The bottom line is no text message is worth risking a life for. Read [PCWorld] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Email / IM, Smartphones, Mobile, Trade Shows, CTIA  Pantech has two new quick messaging phones on AT&T in time for the holidays this year. The Reveal and the Impact both feature a full QWERTY keypads that easily slide out so users can bang out quick messages on AT&T’s 3G network. Pantech’s phones are typically economically priced.
The Reveal is interesting in that its number keys stay on the screen as opposed to most sliders whose keypad gets covered. Only the qwerty keypad slides down. When typing, the number pad stays active so adding numbers is easier then finding the function key - pretty original. GPS is on board and the phone is set to launch October 18th. The Impact is a bit flashier with a bright OLED screen and haptic touchscreen in addition the slide out qwerty keypad. A unique feature here is users don’t need to slide out the keypad, instead they can tap on the soft keyboard (on screen). This was one of my big issues with the Palm Pre. No word on a date yet but the phone will be available in Pink and Blue. Company site: [AT&T] Image credit: Pantech Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Smartphones, Mobile  AT&T has announced two new Windows 6.5 phones that they are adding to their mobile lineup: the Pure and the Tilt 2, both produced by HTC. The phones have all of the features that have been announced earlier for the new Windows Mobile OS. This includes My Phone backup, IE browser and support for Windows Mobile Marketplace.
The Pure is the company's version of the HTC Touch Diamond 2 with an all touch screen used for operation. It will have a 3.2 inch widescreen display, expandable memory, and ambient light sensor. The Pure has a 5 megapixel camera with video capture installed. Meanwhile, the Tilt 2 includes both a touch screen as well as a slide out QWERTY keyboard. The screen is 3.6 inches and the phone utilizes dual mics and dual speakers. A 3.2 megapixel camera will also be included with the Tilt 2. Both phones will come with HTC’s TouchFLO 3-D interface. The Pure will be released today for $150 while the Tilt 2 will be available later this month for $300. Read: [Info Sync World]
Image Credit Info Sync World Full Story » | Written by Heather Wood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Email / IM, Web, Google A new feature arrived in Gmail over the weekend, and despite a pretty banal sounding name, it does seem interesting. Anyway, officially the feature is called “Sponsored mail with enhanced content” which sounds really official and sort of like something that will end up giving us more ads to stare at try and ignore. Thankfully this is not going to be bringing more ads for everyone. It adds an “interactive gadget” which appears to be a fancy name for a favicon, along with the email message which will appear on the subject line just to the left of the time the email was received. What it will do is actually pretty neat; it will allow you to interact with the website without leaving Gmail. So far I have not seen a full listing of sites that would be sending mail with a favicon, but according to the description it sounds like Babycenter will be participating. Additionally, I have seen a few reports that also mention Netflix. In terms of Netflix it looks like users will be able to do things like view and/or add movie recommendations to their queue. Like I mentioned earlier, this feature will not be bringing ads to everyone. In order to see these favicons you will need to be on the sender’s mailing list and that sender will have to be part of the program. Of course, in the good Google way, you can also choose to disable these if they are bothering you. To turn this feature off: “just open a message and click the down-arrow in the upper-right corner of the message and select Do not customize mail from [sender].”
Read [Gmail Help] Via [Google Operating System] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Accessories, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile  Remember way back when Adobe was angling to work with Apple to get Flash on the iPhone? Apple seemingly had no interest in working with Adobe and to date, the mighty iPhone can’t handle Flash. Fast forward a couple years and it seems that Adobe was kind of upset Apple for the cold shoulder.
Back then, Steve Jobs said that Adobe was built for large machines with vast resources. Running it on an iPhone consumes too much power, too much computing power, and runs slowly. Maybe the iPhone just can’t handle it? Seems other smartphones can. Adobe announced it has deals with Palm for the webOS, Google’s Android, and even RIM’s BlackBerry OS. Flash (not Flash Lite) is coming to mobiles and Adobe thinks it is going to be a hit. Symbian and Windows Mobile are also on the schedule. It is likely, Palm’s webOS will get first crack at the new Flash 10.1. From paidcontent.org: The new Adobe Flash Player 10.1 software will be one piece of software that work across PCs, smartphones, netbooks and other devices, which is the vision of the company's Open Screen Project
Adobe admits there still may need to be some tweaking to get full Flash working on these mobile operating systems but downplays it. Back in March of 2008, I said that Flash would suffer from a lack of iPhone compatibility. With HTML5 in the near future, I am not sure how this is going to play out. It will be interesting for sure. Read [paidcontent.org] Image credit: boingboing.net Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Video, Accessories, Content, HDTV  Anyone looking for a low-cost set-top box that will allow for HD playback on a big screen may want to check out the recently released O!Play from Asus. To begin with the Asus O!Play is selling for $99.
Now, here is what we can expect feature wise: - Plays up content up to 1080p
- eSATA, Ethernet, and USB inputs
- Composite and HDMI outputs
- Bitstream or Dolby Digital and DTS Surround audio
Additionally, it seems to have a wide variety of supported file types including MPEG1/2/4, RM/RMVB, VC-1 and H.264 for video as well as MP3, WAV, AAC, OGG, FLAC and AIFF for audio. The O!Play is also able to stream and view JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF image files. Otherwise, the unit ships with a remote control and a set of composite cables. The one drawback here, aside from not having a HDMI cable included, is that the O!Play does not have built-in Wi-Fi. Of course, getting back to that price, $99, that is not all that surprising. It seems to be a nice option for those looking to not spend a ton of money. Product [Amazon] Via [Liliputing] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
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