Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile Planning to get a new Windows Phone 7 smartphone? AT&T has a very nice offer for you then by way of the LQ Quantum. Said Windows Phone 7 device is being offered by AT&T for a low price of $0.01. That prices comes in after you’ve applied for an online discount of $99.98. Don’t ask me why AT&T didn’t just offer it for free because I really don’t know. Just consider as a nice gimmick to elicit some interest to this otherwise lesser known Windows Phone 7 smartphone. But then of course, you didn’t expect the LG Quantum to be given away just like that, right? Obviously, it will come with a two-year contract plus new activation with a required minimum data service which starts from $15/month. Still a good deal, right? Especially since you’d be needing as much mobile data as you can to fully enjoy the LG Quantum anyway. To convince yourself some more in grabbing AT&T’s offer, here’s a review of the features and specs of the LG Quantum - 1GHz processor, full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 512MB of RAM, 16GB onboard memory, 5MP camera with LED flash and can capture 720p video, and DNLA support. via [Pocket Now], product [AT&T LG Quantum] Full Story » | Written by Arnold Zafra for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Mobile, Computers, Mobile Computers 
Now that Apple has announced about the iPad and its availability on March 11, we are now wondering when its prospective rivals are coming out with their already announced tablets? One of this most anticipated rival is the BlackBerry Playbook which was expected to be released in the US end of Q1 and early Q2 for the UK. RIM UK’s MD Steven Bates expressed optimism that the company will beat the promised launched date of the Playbook in both US and UK. The confirmation comes in right after a rumor leaks out that the Blackberry Playbook will not make the Q1 release date in the US and that it will most likely hit retail outlets by April 10. But as Mr. Bates said, this is all not true. RIM is sticking to the “end of Q1 release of the Playbook in the US and Q2 for the UK. Other regions will hopefully have their Playbooks soon after the US and UK release. Now, in case you’re wondering why RIM is going for a staggered schedule on releasing their highly anticipated tablet, Mr. Bates said that well, it has worked with their previously released BlackBerry Torch and other product, so there’s nothing wrong with doing the same with the Playbook. So, there. Are you willing to wait for the release of the Playbook or go for the iPad 2 which will be available on March 11, instead? via [Pocket-Lint] Full Story » | Written by Arnold Zafra for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Mobile, Computers, Mobile Computers See what Apple can do when it comes to rocking the senses of its competitors in the tablet market? Right after announcing the new iPad 2 in all its thin and slim design and not so hefty price as compared to most of its new, upcoming rivals, well one tough rival got a bit worried - Samsung. A senior vice official of Samsung said that the slim design and competitive price of the iPad may become the company’s biggest hindrance when they launch their upgraded Samsung Galaxy Tab. Samsung Executive Vice President, Lee Don-joo admits that Apple has given them a tough challenge to beat because of the new iPad 2. And it looks like, they will have to rethink about some parts of the new Galaxy Tab to compete with the iPad 2 well. In case you forgot, the new Samsung Galaxy Tab has been given a bigger 10.1-inch screen. But what bothers Samsung most is that the new Galaxy Tab are relatively thicker than the iPad - 10.9mm vs 8.8mm for the iPad. Most if not all consumers would want a thinner tablet device. And since the new Samsung Galaxy Tab is bigger, its price also increased as compared to the old Galaxy Tab and the upcoming iPad 2. Although the price of the new Galaxy Tab is yet to be announced, the price of the old Galaxy Tab was already higher than the price of the most expensive model of the new iPad 2. Now, will these issues prompt Samsung to redesign its new Galaxy Tab or tries to reduce the tablet’s launch price? That will be interesting to find out. via [Yonhap News Agency] image credit [Samsung] Full Story » | Written by Arnold Zafra 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! - Flickr app now available for Windows Phone 7 and Windows 7
” Despite the fact that we have seen the Flickr app for Windows Phone 7 in the past, Flickr has more recently decided…” MORE » - 2011 Appy Award winners announced
” The 2011 Appy Award winners have been announced. Created as a way to acknowledge outstanding applications regardless of OS, the Appy Award winners read as a best-of list for the app…” MORE » - Apple drops iPad 1 to $399
” The iPad 2 is set for release next Friday, March 11, but that’s still nine days away. If you still don’t have an iPad, and and don’t think you need to extra speed and FaceTime, Apple has a pretty nice…” MORE » - Verizon gives Xoom 4G upgrade instructions
” Last week we had a leaked image that indicated how Xoom users would be able to upgrade to 4G. Today we have the official instructions of what to do to upgrade the device. The instructions from Verizon are actually just steps…” MORE » - iOS 4.3 makes Safari faster, makes AirPlay better, brings Personal Hotspot
” Almost a side note in the iPad 2 announcement today was the release of iOS 4.3. The next update brings some great improvements to the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. It is set to be ready for download on march…” MORE » - Eee Pad Memo shows up at CeBIT 2011 with Bluetooth phone in tow
” What do we have here? JKKMobile is running some photos of the new Asus Eee Pad Memo being displayed at CeBIT 2011. We may have heard about the Eee Pad Memo before but what makes things even more interesting right…” MORE » - Apple could be planning a white iPad 2
” We all know, or think we know the saga of the white iPhone 4 and how it failed to reach market. It looks like Apple is trying again, though with the iPad instead of the iPhone. 9to5Mac was sent…” MORE » - Verizon sold 1 million iPhone 4’s, according to analyst report
” Verizon has yet to officially announce anything in terms of iPhone 4 sales numbers, however there are now analyst reports suggesting they could have sold more than 1 million. The details are coming…” MORE » - Google adds Honeycomb statue to the ever-growing collection of lawn statues
” Just in case we needed another thing to tell us that Android 3.0 was official, the crew at Google has added the Honeycomb statue to the lawn on the Google campus. That…” MORE » - Samsung Galaxy Tab gets cheaper for those shopping with Rogers, now down to $299.99
” Rogers has become the latest to lower the price on the Samsung Galaxy Tab. As of now, those willing to make a three year commitment will be able to…” MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Computers, Features, Originals, Columns, Who's On Crack 
What's the most common phrase heard around the Gadgetell newsroom? Is it "I love tablets?",or "that's dope!" or "iPad!"? Answer: none of them, it's "they are on crack." This week we take a look back at the things that made us chuckle in the tech world. Assembled here are companies whose moves are so strange, we suspect some illegal substances are involved. Let's see how much of it was fueled by illegal drugs, I am edited to say allegedly, but we all know the truth. The accused: “Flip” -ing out over no Froyo
Apple offering $100 refund for iPad 1 buyers
BlackBerry Playbook bring unsexy back?
Piracy - everyone is doing it
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No Froyo for you Charm or Flipout While I’ve yet to see either of these phones in the wild, it seems Moto doesn’t believe their users care about upgrading the OS. Our Natesh Sood rocks the deets, “in a move that is likely to cause outcry, Motorola decided against rolling out Froyo for two of its mid-range smartphones—the Motorola Flipout and the Motorola Charm. Both launched last year on Android 2.1, which was already outdated at the time, and now that some smartphones are already running Android 2.3, it's disappointing to see these two smartphones not upgrade past Android 2.1. “ This isn’t super uncommon over in Android-land. Often, phones are updated on an irregular basis as OEMs work to update their skins (like MOTO BLUR or HTC Sense UI). However, on other OS, it’s almost guaranteed that your device will be supported for OS upgrades well after the purchase date. I suspect iOS 4.3 will reach back to iPhone 3 with some limitations, as in the past. Motorola would probably point to the fact that these customers are not the OS connesiours we are. They “bought” a device that was already long in the tooth - OS wise, so they probably won’t notice not getting the latest and greatest. Besides that, most probably didn’t buy it (hence my quotes on the term above). They probably got it for free. Does Motorola owe them anything? Interesting question. It would seem that Motorola treats their mid-range phones like used cars sitting in a thick coat of wax on a used car lot. Big “As Is” stickers on the windshield. Can they hide behind , “what you see is what you get?” I say no. Customers are not just buying a device, heck, that’s probably the least expensive part of the deal. The customer is buying service from the carrier. The carrier should be providing an incentive (aka demand) to the OEM, like Motorola, to support the phone for OS upgrades until the 2 year contract is out (common in the States). Is that unreasonable to ask? These are not cars. These are devices we want to work as best as they can. If an OS upgrade can improve things (bug fixes, new features, Easter Eggs) then customers paying for the expensive service should get to reap those benefits. Not doing so only makes the OEM, in this case Motorola, and the carrier look greedy for withholding updates to entice you to buy something new. We need to stop the rioting Flipout and Charm owners. We need a mobility bill of rights here. I’d put my John Hancock on that. 
Just bought an iPad? No worries, Apple wants to give you $100 Imagine all the people making their own iPad unboxing videos over the past two weeks. Suckers. They thought they were jumping on the iPad train only to find out a new model is rolling into the station mere weeks from when they finally convinced their significant other that an iPad made sense (that is the only way these things get bought, by the way). A bit of egg on the face? No worries, Apple has your back. Again, our roving Natesh Sood offers up the story: “if you purchased the original iPad recently, despite all the chatter about a new iPad launching momentarily, then you are probably annoyed you missed out on a better product or at least a cheaper price on what you bought. However, Apple is going to credit $100 to recent purchasers of the original iPad, that is, if you purchased one in the previous two weeks.” But they shouldn’t have. Apple couldn’t have made the invites any more transparent that this was going to be the iPad 2 event. These lemmings ignored the signs, somehow located an Apple store (probably with printed out direction from Mapquest) and laid down their cash feeling all supreme. These folks need to learn the harsh realities of the tech world and Apple coddling them isn’t going to help. As the money is leaving your wallet for tech purchase, buyers should feel regret. Regret that even before the card is swiped, the new model is probably in the giant hold of a cargo ship. It is all but guaranteed to be 5% shinier, 25% faster and off course 33% thinner. These are cold, hard facts. Heck, I’d argue that even before the ink is dried on the Best Buy future-proof contract, some punk is unloading a pallet of the next generation in the back room. So, if you’ve read both of the first two entries today, here’s the score card:
Software (like phone OS): you should have a right to stay updated within a reasonable period.
Hardware (like the iPad 2): you were screwed the second “buy” flashed in your head. 
BlackBerry doing their level best to make a tablet unsexy Business. Corporate. CIO. $5 says you’ve probably stopped reading already, but for those who braved that crap, here’s the treat. BlackBerry marketing is zagging while the others zig. While Apple and Samsung are working as hard as they can to ooze their tablets sex appeal and appearing to be “fun”; BlackBerry is going the other direction: stuffy. Robert Nelson reports, “RIM has recently released another PlayBook tablet promo video, and this one puts the focus on business users and apparently ONLY business users. The video comes in at 1 minute and 36 seconds and touts how the PlayBook is for business and more specifically how it was "built for CIOs with CIOs." Going as far as saying that the "PlayBook is the only professional grade tablet" and that it "will profoundly change the way people work."” Just how upper crust are they going? Here’s my thoughts: Imagine:
A billboard for the PlayBook: “The BlackBerry PlayBook - if you love Volvo’s, then you’ll find this a justifiable expense!”
A Nelly remake video, “It’s getting stuffy in here, so take off your BlackBerry PlayBook Cordoba leather case” (FYI- I can’t stop humming this now)
A commercial featuring the world’s top squash player: “with my PlayBook, I “squash” the competition (monocle falls out) har har har.”
Another billboard, “Thurston Howell III had a PlayBook.” Pirates? Sure we identify with that. 
Anti-Piracy Ad from The IT Crowd
Uploaded by axepourhomme. - Our Tarun Kunwar finds, “a recent study gauging "moral fiber" has shown that 70% of the general public find internet piracy to be socially acceptable. As it turned out, of the folks that were polled, 3 out of 4 claim that selling an illegal product for profit is unethical.” Is it any different than pirates in Somalia boarding a foreign vessel, killing the owners and stealing the goods? Of course, we’d recoil from that. Boosting 0s and 1s surely can’t put us in the same cell as those bad elements, right? But still only 30% (according to the poll mentioned by Kunwar) find it unacceptable. What is wrong with them? Look at this chart: 
Awesome right? If only there were a way for the movie people to put the preview-laden movies on torrents and put the quick-play and get it over version in the theater. It’s common sense. Make it easy and we’ll beat a path to your door. Heck, just look at iTunes - one click and you’ve got your music. Imagine if it also downloaded commercials that played before each song! See you next week, crackheads. Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Mobile, Computers, Mobile Computers While this latest little bit has yet to be confirmed, it looks like Sam’s Club is going to be offering the Wi-Fi only Mototola Xoom tablet for a nice low price—$539. And while there has been images taken of the in-store display showing off this pricing at at least one Sam’s Club location we have not gotten any official word from them. In other words, while this is believable at this time, there is always the possibility that someone made a mistake on the price tag. With that, a quick trip to you big box discount store may be in order if you are in the market for a Wi-Fi only Xoom. Via [Droid-Life] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Smartphones, Mobile, Gaming, Mobile, Portable Coming by way of the Game Developers Conference taking place in San Francisco this week, it looks like Peter Vesterbacka from Rovio Mobile has given an update in terms of the success of Angry Birds on Android. Of course, success may be understating this a little bit, according to Peter, Angry Birds for Android has been downloaded more than 30 million times. And perhaps more important, stats are showing that as many as 80 percent of users keep playing after the initial download and keep up with updates. Then again, given we are still playing on an almost daily basis, that last bit is not all that hard to believe. Via [joystiq] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Video, Content, Video Providers, Computers, Mobile Computers Netflix has recently updated the Netflix interface on the iPad, though it seems a little strange as to how they did that. I can say that after firing up the Netflix app on my iPad I have an updated version and layout. That said, I cannot remember downloading and installing an update to the Netflix app itself. And furthermore, checking the iOS App Store listing shows the Netflix app has last been updated on December 21, 2010. Strange, but what we can tell you is that the iPad version of Netflix is now more like the iPhone version of Netflix. In other words some of the features such as DVD queue management have gone away. Still, while it may be missing some the simplified looking version with options to go Home, to Genres, Search or browse the Instant Queue make it seem a little more user friendly. Bottom line, it seems strange that my app has been updated when I cannot remember updating it, but at the same time I cannot say I would complain about the new layout. Via [HackingNetflix] and [Netflix for iPad (App Store link)] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Downloads, Websites Mozy, an online backup service for consumers and businesses boasting of more than 1 million customers backing up 75 petabytes of information on its cloud servers has just showed off their upcoming sync service for mobile devices. Mozy was at the CeBIT 2011 and launched their iPhone and Android apps which should be available soon. These mobile apps will let you to securely access stuff that you’ve protected with Mozy, share some of these files with others and most importantly to view these stuff on your iPhone or Android devices. In addition, the mobile app will also let you preview the files you’re going to access before downloading them. With regards to the sync functionality of its mobile apps, Mozy also announced that users will be able to put a Mozy sync folder on each of their computers. These files will be automatically synched on any computers they used with their Mozy account. Mozy’s sync functionality will be initially available to US customers and the mobile app will be launch to limited users soon. No words yet on when all of these new Mozy features will be available to the public though. via [Mozy Blog] Full Story » | Written by Arnold Zafra for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones In a move that is likely to cause outcry, Motorola decided against rolling out Froyo for two of its mid-range smartphones—the Motorola Flipout and the Motorola Charm. Both launched last year on Android 2.1, which was already outdated at the time, and now that some smartphones are already running Android 2.3, it’s disappointing to see these two smartphones not upgrade past Android 2.1. Below, you can find a list of Motorola smartphones in the United States, Canada, and other regions with detailed information on the current status of upgrades for each device. Read [Motorola] Via [AndroidCentral] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Computers, Laptops, Web, Google If you happen to be in that lucky crown that was sent out a Cr-48 notebook from Google you may want to turn it on and grab this latest update. The overall update seems to be rather complete in terms of improvements and changes and such, however there is one stand out item—the trackpad. This latest update from Google will bring Chrome OS up to version 0.10.156.46. This complete list according to Google reads as follows; - 3G modem activation fixes
- 3G connection to the carrier fixes
- Wi-Fi connectivity/Out of the Box fixes
- New trackpad and sensitivity setting adjusted
- Auto update engine and debugging improvements
- Power optimizations
- GTalk video/chat optimizations
- Audio CPU utilization improvements
- Improved on screen indicators: brightness, network status, update icon
Though I have still been using the Cr-48 I have on hand, it was always with a USB mouse plugged in, maybe after this update runs its course I can start leaving the external mouse at home and actually use the trackpad. Well, time to grab the Cr-48 and make sure it is updated. Via [Google Chrome Releases] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellular Providers, Mobile, Computers, Mobile Computers For our friends in Canada who are planning to get the new BlackBerry Playbook, here’s another piece of good news. Aside from Telus and Rogers, it has just been confimed that the other major player in the big three Canadian mobile carriers is also offering the BlackBerry Playbook when it becomes available later on. We’re referring of course to Bell. The information was sort of confirmed via an ad posted at retail chain outlet The Source which in case you’re not aware is owned by Bell. So, that puts some reliability on the sourced out flyer and somehow confirmed that Bell will also be selling the BlackBerry Playbook. The only question now is for how much Bell will be offering it and when it will becomes available. Still, it’s good to know especially for RIM that the three Canadian mobile carriers will distributing the BlackBerry PlayBook. And for our Canadian friends, now is the time to decide from which mobile carrier will you be getting your Playbook from, that is of course if you’re planning to get this tablet PC. via [MobileSyrup] Full Story » | Written by Arnold Zafra for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
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