Section: Gadgets / Other, Household, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous Thats right, according to a recent study, the economy is bouncing back in the retail world, according to the personal finance site, Mint. The study shows that sales post-Black friday have seen a significant rise compared to last year. Electronics had the most significant rise with big name retailer Best Buy having a 18.3% year-over-year growth. Next is Fry’s with a growth of 12.2%. General stores such as Walmart had the next biggest growth in sales followed by clothing stores as seen by the above graph. High end stores also saw a rise this year which is a nice change to the negative trend we observed last year. It seems that the Santa is bringing more then just hula-hoops and bicycles this year. He’s also packaged a nice boost to our economy which we will cherish much longer than a bike we’ll outgrow by summer. Besides, everyone can benefit from an improved economy, but i can’t hula-hoop if my life depended on it… Via [Gizmodo] Full Story » | Written by Greg Billetdeaux for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Haven’t caught all of the Gadgetell news this week? Here's your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles! - See the world through the eyes of google: Goggle Goggles
” Along with the announcements of the Google real time search and the labeling of your local businesses, Google had another feature up their sleeve today at their huge demo. This came in the form of an app that will be used…” MORE » - Eight new phones in HTC Product Roadmap for 2010
” Saturday, the 2010 Product Roadmap for HTC surfaced on the internet. What we saw were pictures provided from a brochure that was handed out in Vienna, Austria in October. What it included was eight new phones with pictures and specs…” MORE » - Google Wave opens the floodgates
” Today, Google extended Wave invites to everyone that applied for one. Along with that, they hit the 1,000,000 user milestone. This is great and all, but I’m sure that three-fourths of these users don’t exactly know what to use Wave for.…” MORE » - Crunchpad renamed to JooJoo
” The CrunchPad is back from the dead but with a different name. Now the JooJoo, the tablet is scheduled for pre-orders on Friday under the Fusion Garage name. Fusion Garage held a video call for reporters and analysts Monday morning to make…” MORE » - VMware plans to deliver dual-OS smartphones in 2012
” The iPhone far outpaces Android and webOS in the smartphone race because it has more time on the market and a much larger and respected resource for apps. But what if someone could buy a phone capable of running Android or webOS…” MORE » - Holiday savings: gadget deal sites
“This holiday season, more of us are looking for the absolute lowest prices. One way to find these deals are to watch sites that track hourly deals such as gadget-buddy.com, nobrainerdeals.com and cleansnipe. These three sites can bring the best of the net’s deals. MORE » - Gadgetell Roundup: Barnes & Noble Nook reviews
” Today seems to be the day that the reviews of the Barnes & Noble Nook will hit the web. And given that, I have spent the morning reading reviews instead of actually getting any real work done. That said, the reviews should be of interest to…” MORE » - Google annouces real time search results
” In this day and age, we want to know things right when they happen. RSS feeds and live updates on Facebook are some examples. But now Google is bringing this power to its search engine with real-time results. Amit Singhal, the…” MORE » - Google announces plans to tag stores across America
” Every product now-a-days has a UPC on it. A UPC is that tiny square with a bunch of black lines on it that the guy at the cash register scans so the system knows what item it is and how…” MORE » - Get up to $400 cash back from AT&T - U-verse campaign heats up
” For online orders only, AT&T is offering up to $400 via a AT&T Reward Visa Prepaid card on orders for a combination of services. The offer starts today and ends 12/31/09. Here is the reward system: $200 Reward…” MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Apple, Communications, Cellular Providers, Mobile, Gadgets / Other, Features, Originals, Columns, Who's On Crack As the holidays roll up on us far too quickly, thankfully the tech companies of the world have provided us with a bounty of things to talk about at Christmas parties. If you get stuck at one of these festive events where you are supposed to pretend hanging out with the mouth-breathers in your department, try getting everyone riled about by talking about: - AT&T wants to kill your smartphone
- Publishers seek to turn the Kindle into yesterdays news
- Facebook going public
- JooJoo - stolen goods
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AT&T says enjoy your data now, cause this all-you-can-eat buffet is ending. Why does AT&T’s network get picked on? AT&T has a one word answer: iPhone. iPhone users are sluping up so much data, it is crippling the network in big cities like New York and San Fransisco. The solution? AT&T will provide incentives for iPhone users to use less data. Incentives? That’s a fun economics term that will probably mean extra fees for high data consumers. The upside might be that the company lowers data fees for users who consume less while hitting the always-downloading crowd with increases. This should shift consumers to use less. This could mean using WiFi whenever possible or just using your JooJoo pad to surf over your home’s WiFi connection. Gadgetell’s Sue Walsh had this to say, “If they think they are going to convince smartphone users, especially iPhone owners, to use less data, they are going to be sorely disappointed. Then again, if Apple finally decides to end it's exclusivity agreement with them, they may well find lack of coverage to be the least of their problems. Where the iPhone goes a good chunk of their customer base may go too.” 
Publishers seek to turn the Kindle into yesterdays news. How to kill ebooks? Delay, delay, delay. Count Simon & Schuster as well as the Hachette Book Group in the We Hate Ebookers club. This group wants desparately to cling to their way of life despite the advance ebook reader army. Paper, ink, stupid jacket covers that don’t stay on, forever! Maybe I am being too harsh. Ebookers like our Editor, Robert Nelson says, “honestly, this move, except for maybe a very rare case would not be any cause for me to put my Kindle down and pick up a hard cover book. Which means that at least for me, they are just delaying the inevitable ebook sale.” Maybe the price of ebooks need to rise? Doing so would ease the minds of publishers, allow new releases on Kindles and their ilk while those who can hold out get the lower price. Something is got to give. Facebook friends you, only to put your stuff everywhere It seems good old Facebook wants to go public and is taking you along for the ride. The new privacy roll out tools are freaking everyone out. Our Sue Walsh explains it best: “...overall Facebook has seen to it that they have actually taken away some of their users privacy and that is not acceptable at all. C'mon Facebook, wake up. These new "tools" are a horrible idea!” By getting your status updates public, they become searchable and Facebook’s footprint on the web grows exponentially. The more they can wrestle away from you, they can use to spread around. Sue gives us some pretty good ideas on how you can save what is left of your privacy on Facebook and where to complain about it. 
Joojoo to actually make it to consumers hands?
TechCrunch’s vision, now called JooJoo since Fusion Garage decided to cut Arrington out of the deal is now awaiting pre-sales beginning tonight. This whole deal along with a new rumor about Apple’s mythic tablet rolling in on the hour has me reconsidering my excitement about tablets. I believe we can put tablets in the category of UMPCs. Neat but we really don’t want them.
I couch surf with my iPhone just fine. Something bigger is better, but by how much? $500 worth isn’t the answer for me. The problem is the form factor; you go from a handheld, like the iPhone where you can one hand surf to the JooJoo where you lean it on your lap or on a table and the ergonomics are all wrong. The solution? Simple, get a stand to hold the JooJoo at an angle and make a keyboard that attached with a hinge (that’s smart because it will protect the glass face of the JooJoo). Even better, if you whisper the name “netbook” at your local best buy when you want a JooJoo, they’ll give you one like we’ve just modified above for $200! Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile  It looks like Sprint is preparing to make a change in their contract terms, and yes that means users will be able to (in theory) cancel their current contract without having to pay an early termination fee. Of course, I say “in theory” because your individual mileage may vary, as it usually does with these sorts of changes. In other words, your ability to cancel will likely be determined by how nice you are, how good of a case you present and most important the agent that you are speaking with. That said, it cannot hurt to try.
Anyway, according to the details, which are coming courtesy of PhoneNews, Sprint will be increasing the regulatory charge to $0.40 and is currently in the process of changing terms. Regulatory Charge/Ts&Cs Changes
Effective 1/1/10, the Regulatory Charge will increase to $0.40/line. Visit Sprint Ts&Cs or sprint.com/taxesandfees for details; also effective 1/1/10, the Sprint Terms & Conditions (Ts&Cs) are changing. Please review them carefully at sprint.com or on request.
According to Sprint’s Terms & Conditions; If a change we make to the Agreement is material and has a material adverse effect on Services under your Term Commitment, you may terminate each line of Service materially affected without incurring an Early Termination Fee only if you: (a) call us within 30 days after the effective date of the change; and (b) specifically advise us that you wish to cancel Services because of a material change to the Agreement that we have made. If you do not cancel Service within 30 days of the change, an Early Termination Fee will apply if you terminate Services before the end of any applicable Term Commitment.
The key part being “materially adverse change of contract.” Of course, what this means is that you should be able to cancel without paying an ETF as long as you do so within 30 days of notification. In addition, Sprint is also going to be adding an additional $4.99 fee to accounts with spending limits. This time, I think I just may give this a try, just to see what happens. Fortunately, or unfortunately I have a contract with Sprint that I am not particularity attached to (thanks to having a Google Voice number) and may try and cancel and switch over to Verizon. Via [PhoneNews and PreCentral] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile FCC listings are always fun, they give us something to speculate about, then later hope to see come true. Anyway, one of the latest phones that has made the required FCC appearance if the Acer Liquid (S100) A1 and it is showing that it will have support for AT&T’s 3G bands here in the US. Of course that does not mean that we will see it available with AT&T anytime soon, or ever for that matter. But that is the fun in the speculation. Otherwise, what we can tell you about the Acer Liquid A1 is that it will be powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and have a 3.5-inch touchscreen display, Wi-Fi, GPS and a 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus. And yes, this FCC listing does add some truth to the previous rumors of it being on its way to AT&T. Now if we could just see an official announcement from AT&T, because there are many that are sitting and waiting not so patiently for them to announce their first Android based smartphone. Read [FCC] Via [unwired view] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Gadgets / Other, ebooks Yesterday it was Simon & Schuster and The Hachette Book Group that mentioned how they were planning to release ebooks with roughly a 3-4 month delay as compared to the hard cover release, and today we have yet another publisher announcing similar plans. Todays publisher is HarperCollins, and they have stated that this affect about five to ten books per month in the upcoming year. It seems that they also are concerned about the less expensive digital copies, but they have spun that statement to make it seem like they are doing it for the readers. According to HarperCollins; “Mr. Murray said that if new hardcover titles continue to be sold as $9.99 e-books, the eventual outcome will be fewer literary choices for customers, because publishers won’t be able to take as many chances on new writers.”
As far as the delay of the release, it could be anywhere from four weeks up to six months. Luckily for the readers, Brian Murray who is the chief executive of News Corp.‘s HarperCollins Publishers stated that they are “going to experiment with this” which means it could still change in the future. We can only hope. Read [WSJ] Via [engadget] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile "There's a fee for that." That may be something AT&T customers will be hearing in the future when it comes to data usage. As anyone who's seen Verizon's "There's a Map for That" ads knows, AT&T's 3G coverage is pathetic. What's more, iPhones are huge data hogs. For AT&T this is a recipe for disaster. iPhone users have been complaining about poor coverage and slow speeds for awhile and it seems AT&T's answer is to tell them to stop using so much data. Ralph de la Vega, president and chief executive for mobility and consumer markets at AT&T, told analysts at a conference in New York that the company will beginning encouraging customers to refrain from heavy data usage even thought they pay for unlimited data. "We're going to try to focus on making sure we give incentives to those small percentages to either reduce or modify their usage, so they don't crowd out the customers on those same cell sites," he said.
De la Vega went on to say that the company may consider a "pricing scheme that addresses the usage" as well but that more research would have to be done. Some analysts think that might mean tiered data plans are in the future not unlike those used by some cable broadband providers. AT&T can raise its data fees and "encourage" customers to use less data all they want, but the bottom line is there network stinks and they are going to have to put more work into increasing their 3G coverage and bandwith capabilities. Those ads aren't lying, and that's why AT&T freaked out and tried to get a judge to block them. If they think they are going to convince smartphone users, especially iPhone owners, to use less data, they are going to be sorely disappointed. Then again, if Apple finally decides to end it's exclusivity agreement with them, they may well find lack of coverage to be the least of their problems. Where the iPhone goes a good chunk of their customer base may go too. What do you think? If you have an unlimited data plan and your provider started encouraging you to use less data would you listen? Why or why not? Read [New York Times] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Gadgets / Other, Reviews What is it? The Sungale Cyberus Smart Info Engine, an ebook reader/personal media player/digital photo frame. A seven-inch touchscreen device that can connect to the Internet for YouTube, email, streaming radio, and weather, as well as read ebooks, display photos and play videos. Retails for $249. What's in the box? In the box you get the Sungale Cyberus itself, a pair of earbuds, a charger and a USB cable. The Cyberus itself comes in a nice leather case, and has a stylus built in. The Good The idea of the Cyberus is a good one. A 7-inch screen for watching video, displaying photos, and reading ebooks among other things. The display is nice, displays colors quite well. The leather case is also very nice, makes the device look good, and makes it so you don’t have to worry about scratching up the screen. In terms of software, the wide range of supported media formats is a appreciated. Full color PDF viewing is definitely a good idea. The touchscreen, though resistive, can generally be used by the stylus. The Bad Unfortunately, most everything about the Cyberus fits in here. The first hint you’ll get is, when turning on the device two options appear “Link to Internet” and “Goto Main Menu,” which makes sense. When trying to connect to the Internet, however, you’re given possibly the strangest keyboard layout I’ve seen for inputting the network’s password (if any). The keyboard has all of the numbers symbols listed first, then in the middle of a line started with the alphabet, starting with “a.” It means you’ll be doing a lot of hunting and pecking at first, though it might become a bit easier to some given time. The Cyberus runs into other UI issues as well. The home screen is laid out similar to the iPhone/iPod touch, though with much larger icons (and much uglier text). The top of the screen almost always has the Sungale logo, the word “Cyberus,” the battery icon, and the name of the screen you’re currently on. There is also an “x” in the top right corner, which is meant to be the back button. Media playback on the Cyberus, to put it nicely, isn’t all that wonderful. The first thing I tried doing on the device was to load up an ebook and start to read it. I downloaded a .txt version of Cory Doctorow’s new “Makers” (The Cyberus, unfortunately does not support ePub) to begin reading. I quickly found out that reading was not a pleasant experience. Every so often, after pressing the next page button (the bottom button of the pair on the side of the device), the ebook would go forward two pages (I later figured out that, although the button needs to click to activate, keeping it slightly depressed seemed to cause this issue, so I had to learn to completely remove my finger from the button quickly every time). Not only that, but the last line of the previous page would appear as the first line in the new page, which was more than a bit frustrating. Combine that with the recurring ugly text, and my reading didn’t last very long. As for video playback, I was excited to watch video on the full 7-inch screen. I was disappointed again to find out that videos don’t display in full screen (either from memory or on YouTube). The screen is instead mostly taken up by empty, black space, the title of the video on top, and a UI displaying the time elapsed, volume, and two speakers when not paused or muted. The videos display in and area only slightly larger than the screen on an iPod touch, and can choke when there is a lot going on (to be fair, the video was playing from an SD card, which may have caused that issue). Also, there was no way to scrub through the video, so if you start watching a movie of some sort of the device, hopefully you have time to watch the full thing before the extremely short battery runs out or you run out of time. No multitasking, so no listening to Internet radio and reading an ebook. The In-Between The Internet apps work, not incredibly well, but not terribly bad. The UI can get in the way, but it doesn’t mean the apps themselves are bad. The Crux The Sungale Cyberus is tough. I really wanted to like the device, but I just couldn’t. Your money is better used on an iPod touch or a netbook which can do the same things, only better. Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Cellular Providers  In an effort to simplify the process of purchasing Android apps, T-Mobile is adding an option to post Android Market purchases to a customer’s monthly bill. Making good on a promise made by CTO Cole Brodman last month, T-Mobile will make it possible to have the costs of a paid app added to a subscriber’s monthly bill rather than use Google Checkout. The new option is available only to users who receive an “invisible” update that is being rolled out to T-Mobile USA customers in stages.
The current version of the Android Market requires that customers provide a credit or debit card to link to a Google Checkout account. While this is a short process for most people, others complain that the required credit card adds a burden to the app purchasing process. At last month’s Open Mobile summit, T-Mobile CTO Cole Brodman suggested that giving customers the option to bill apps to a T-Mobile account rather than through Google Checkout would increase app sales. It looks like we’ll discover the accuracy of that statement soon. Android owners will still have to use Google Checkout if they wish to purchase apps from European developers. Because apps from these developers are set in Euros or Pounds, the T-Mobile billing option cannot yet convert the cost into US dollars. T-Mobile and Google are reportedly working on a fix for this problem. To check if your phone has the update, follow these steps:
1. Press Menu > “Settings”
2. Press “Applications”
3. Press “Manage Applications”
4. Scroll to and click the Market application
5. Verify that the Market version is higher than 1660 Read [T-Mobile USA Forums] Via [Androinica.com and AndroidandMe.com] Full Story » | Written by Andrew Kameka for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
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