Section: Communications, Cellular Providers, Smartphones  When Verizon announced that it would be holding a joint press conference with Skype at Mobile World Congress we essentially knew that Verizon would be more friendly toward the VoIP service.
Verizon and Skype have announced that Verizon will now allow those who possess certain smartphones to call anyone over Skype on the 3G network. That could have easily been inferred from the announcement of the press conference, though it couldn’t be seen that Verizon would allow for unlimited Skype calling over the 3G network. That means essentially minute-free calls if you’re calling anyone through Skype. The phones that will start next month are the Motorola Droid, Droid Eris, Motorola Devour and a number of BlackBerry phones. It will later work on other smartphones. The only reason that this is much bigger than it seems is because Verizon has a reputation of not being the most open of carriers in the US. This could possibly give Verizon a point against AT&T to say that its phones can make calls a surf the web at the same time, as long as that call is over Skype. A call is still a call, though, and there are some people out there who would prefer the sound quality of Skype over any carrier’s network. Read [Verizon] via [Engadget] Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Web Browsers  RIM has announced the upcoming launch of a new web browser for its BlackBerry smartphones. The new WebKit browser is meant to help make the devices even more attractive to consumers.
"Today we are announcing an exciting new offering that further expands the market opportunity for the BlackBerry platform," said Mike Lazaridis, co-chief executive officer and inventor of the BlackBerry.
As a BlackBerry user this is great news. The current BB browser is perfectly serviceable but it chokes on large pages and doesn't always render properly. Next to the iPhone/iPod Touch's Safari browser it seems downright primitive at times. A faster, updated browser will be welcome, but first, Verizon and Sprint need to stop dragging their feet and release OS 5.0, something Tour users have been eagerly awaiting. RIM says the WebKit browser will be available "this year" but refused to give a specific date. They promise it will be worth the wait. Presumably existing BB owners will be able to download it as an OS update. Read [BusinessWeek] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Gadgets / Other, GPS/Navigation  Those looking forward to the upcoming release of Apple's iPad and planning to use it as an e-reader may be a bit disappointed to hear that Apple plans to use DRM on all the books in the Apple iBook Store. The company will use FairPlay, the DRM system once used for songs in iTunes. Like Amazon's Kindle books, books purchased in the iBook store will have a limit on how many devices they can be copied to. While they will ultimately leave the decision of to DRM or not to the publishers, most are expected to use it.
One of the things the Kindle is often sharply criticized for is its DRM, but it looks like the iPad will have similar limitations. It's not yet known if books purchased from the iBook Store will work on devices other than the iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone, but if they do, it will give the iPad a definite advantage. Read [LATimes] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
FROM GAMERTELL - All of Amazon’s Gold Box deals today, February 16, 2010, are Wii games or accessories. Walk It Out is available for $19.98 all day and other items, like The Beatles: Rock Band and a Wii remote charging station, are part of the lightning deals sales.
MORE » Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Audio, Web, Online Music/Video, Features, Contests 
Last week, (courtesy of Slacker) we were able to run a contest and give away a handful of Slacker Radio Plus subscriptions. That giveaway/contest ended yesterday and here are the winners. Below are the winners of the 1-year subscriptions: A big congrats to the winners, thanks for entering and thanks for reading Gadgetell. Now, I need the winners to send me an email at robert (at) gadgetell (dot) com with the email address that you are using as your Slacker ID. And if you have not set up a Slacker account yet, go here and set up a free account. After you send me your email address I will have that upgraded to a Slacker Radio Plus account. Finally, we still have a few 3-month subscriptions left to giveaway, so if you want one of those, send an email to robert (at) gadgetell (dot) com with your Slacker ID and I will give those out on a first come first serve basis. Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Smartphones, Mobile LG recently showed off its GD880 Mini at the MWC, the “smallest and slimmest 3.2-inch full touchscreen on the market”, or so they say. It’s one of the smallest touchscreen phone in the world, with a 16:9 screen ratio. It really doesn’t waste any precious screen real estate by minimizing the size of bezels around the screen. It sports a 5-megapixel camera, 3G, A-GPS and WiFi. The smartphone also focuses on social networking with its “Social Network Connect”, a seamless Twitter/Facebook app design. It will retail in France for 400 Euros ($546). Although there’s no official confirmation on US availability, you can expect it to come real soon. Read [Ubergizmo] Full Story » | Written by Cheng Hung for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Email / IM, Smartphones, Mobile  There are two stories being told out of the MWC in Barcelona, Spain. One is that the new HTC Legend is the hottest Android phone to fall out of big show and the other is it is a let down compared to to the phone it is replacing. The truth is likely somewhere in between.
First, the hot stuff. The Legend aluminum frame is carved out of a block of aluminum ala Macbooks, which explain some of the fanboy kneejerk response of lust. The device looks hot. The 3.2 AMOLED screen is bright and gorgeous according to most who’ve held this one. Like the Desire, an optical joystick has found a home here. Android 2.1 that is featured on the Legend is made friendlier by the addition of the Sense UI. Then the not-so-hot stuff The Legend’s screen maybe upgraded to AMOLED but it kept the same HVGA resolution of 320x480 (sub par for a super phone). The Legend has a 600 GHz processor vs the 1GHz found in the Desire and Nexus One. Internal ROM is limited at 521Mb but is expandable with microSD card. The Legend has a smaller battery than the Hero and is expected to have a shorter runtime. Not the overwhelming spec that would make this the easy buy in Android world. Clearly, the phone looks amazing and we wonder why HTC chose the build the way they did. Forcing consumers to make trade offs might have unpredictable results, though North American’s may not get the chance but Europeans will get the chance in early Q2 of this year. Read: [Engadget] and [Techtree] Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile 
Take the super-fast Snapdragon 1GHz processor from the Google Nexus One phone and add the popular HTC Sense UI and you get the new HTC Desire. The new device features many of the same highlights as the super Google phone but has some small differences. It is not clear if the phone will hit US shores, perhaps not wanting to compete with the Nexus One on US soil. Both the new Desire and the Nexus One feature a 3.7 AMOLED touchscreen, run Android 2.1 and have a 5 megapixel camera. The weight and overall size are nearly the same. They even look a bit alike. However, there are some differences. The Desire looses the trackball of the Nexus One and replaces it with an optical joystick. Gone are the soft control buttons, replaced by physical buttons along the bottom of the phone. Of course, the biggest difference is in the software. The updated Sense UI is a skin that sits atop Android to move the important features closer to your fingers. Android gets a bit of a bad rap in that it is so customizable, many users need to learn a bit to figure it all out. With Sense, users can easily customize the skin to see the info that is important to them. No price or release date yet. Read: [PCWorld] Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Accessories Mobile World Congress is here and with the mix of new phones we are bound to see plenty of accessories, at least some of which are going to be Bluetooth related. And with that, Jabra has taken this opportunity to introduce the Clipper. The Clipper is a small little device that features the guts of a Bluetooth headset with a 3.5mm headphone jack and will allow you to turn any standard wired stereo headset into a Bluetooth headset. It also ships with a set of Jabra branded noise canceling headphones. According to the specs, the Clipper weighs in at 20 grams and will be able to offer up to 6 hours of talk time and up to 8 days in standby. So far the Clipper has been announced for a UK release where it will sell for £39 (about $60 US). Read [Pocket-Lint] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Computers, Software / Applications  Microsoft has begun sending out friendly email reminders to those who may still be running the release candidate version of Windows 7. And in a not so subtle way, they are telling you that its time to upgrade.
According to the email; “Starting on March 1, 2010 your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Your work will not be saved during the shutdown.”
In other words, as of March 1, 2010 your Windows 7 RC running computer is going to become pretty useless. That is, unless you like working in two hour spurts. Additionally, between March 1, 2010 and June 1, 2010 you are going to get periodic updates telling you that your copy of Windows is not genuine and your wallpaper will turn into a solid black background with a persistant message on the desktop. Sounds like its time to get off the Windows 7 RC. Of course, with the nags aside, you can actually run and continue to use the Windows 7 RC until it fully expires on June 1, 2010. Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
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