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Nokia Comes with Music US launch smartly pushed back to 2010

by Thomas Ricker posted Sep 1st 2009 at 4:58AM

Not that most Americans could care, but Nokia is pushing back the US launch of its DRM-laden Comes with Music service into 2010. CWM, you'll recall, is Nokia's "free" all-you-can-eat music service that bundles the 12-18 month music subscription cost into the inflated handset price -- although like any DRM music scheme, solutions already exist to break the CWM shackles. The delay is probably a wise move considering the weak state of Nokia's US partnerships required to offset consumer costs, lukewarm response to its latest handsets, and the fact that most US consumers share a broad distaste for DRM music. We'd rather see Nokia launch late but with a compelling proposition than launch now in blind adherence to a timeline.

Apple's iPod touch tackling "networked warfare" for US military

by Darren Murph posted Apr 20th 2009 at 8:47AM

While the British military has had a love-hate relationship with Apple's darling, the US armed forces are reportedly warming up quite well to the iPod touch. A fresh Newsweek report asserts that the touch is increasingly replacing far more expensive dedicated devices in the field, noting that it is being used to spearhead the future of "networked warfare." Equipped with a rugged shell and software developed by language translation firms (among others), the device is being used to aid communications and acquire information from databases. In fact, the US Department of Defense is "developing military software for iPods that enables soldiers to display aerial video from drones and have teleconferences with intelligence agents halfway across the globe," and snipers are already utilizing a ballistics calculator to add precision to shots. And hey, it's not like easy access to Tap Tap Revenge is really bad for morale, either.

[Via CNET]

Nintendo moves 435,000 DSi handhelds during first week in US

by Darren Murph posted Apr 20th 2009 at 7:47AM

We already heard that the Big N managed to lighten its DSi inventory by 300,000 during the handheld's first full weekend in America, and apparently another 135,000 procrastinators swooped in to grab one as the week finished up. Potentially more amazing, however, is the overall impact of Nintendo in the month of March. Last month, Nintendo systems accounted for just south of 60 percent (58.4 percent, if you must know) of all video game hardware sold in America. And yeah, that's even despite a shocking 17 percent drop in Wii sales during the same 30 day window. Have we mentioned lately that things seem to be going quite well in the Mushroom Kingdom? 'Cause they definitely do.

[Via Joystiq]

National Broadband Plan to bring high-speed access to all Americans... ideally

by Darren Murph posted Apr 9th 2009 at 10:11AM

Hey, what do you know? All those meetings over the proposed National Broadband Plan has amounted to something: a "yeah, we should probably hit this up." Today, the FCC has kicked off an immensely ambitious project to bring "high-speed internet access to every corner of the United States." $7.2 billion of the economic stimulus package has already been allocated for the task, but it'll be ages before anything becomes of this. For starters, the FCC is asking for input from consumers, businesses, etc, yet it doesn't require a response until February of 2010. Meanwhile, nations like South Korea, Japan and Australia are all looking to implement similar rollouts, albeit with much higher speeds. You see, the FCC currently defines "broadband" as 786Kpbs, which obviously isn't anywhere near median rates in some of the aforementioned countries. Pardon our skepticism in this becoming a reality, but at least we'll be extra elated if our rock-bottom expectations are met.

Three of four undersea internet cables get cut, hasn't affected you yet

by Darren Murph posted Dec 19th 2008 at 3:30PM

So, there's good news and bad news, and per tradition, we'll be starting with the latter. Three of four undersea cables that route internet traffic from Asia to North America have inexplicably been cut, meaning that your international Quake III server may be a bit slow this evening. The good news is that this fiasco clearly hasn't affected you yet. The AP has confirmed via Egypt's communications ministry that the cables have indeed been severed, causing massive outages in select portions of the world. Oddly, no suspicions of subterfuge have been mentioned, but we have all ideas rumors will start to swirl if another gets snipped. So, tell us readers -- are you still online? Wait, don't answer that.

[Via ZDNet]

Cowon brings the flash-based O2 PMP stateside: starts at $219.99

by Darren Murph posted Oct 28th 2008 at 6:06PM

Atta boy, Cowon. Before we Americans even had a chance to forget about the O2's Korean introduction and the overseas hands-on, the outfit is going ahead and bringing the unit to US soil. Hailed as the company's first flash memory-based PMP with a 4.3-inch widescreen display, this simple-yet-classy media player packs an SDHC expansion slot and a Power Management System that helps it eek out 18-hours of audio playback and 8-hours with video; you'll also find a revamped user interface and world class codec support. Those who've discovered their dream machine can snap one up now from JetMall, Amazon, NewEgg or a variety of other e-tailers for $219.99 (8GB), $249.99 (16GB) or $299.99 (32GB).

Latest NPD data shows RAZR V3 still top-selling handset in America

by Darren Murph posted Oct 8th 2008 at 9:07PM

No need to defog your spectacles, what you just read there in the headline is the truth. Astoundingly enough, Motorola's nearly archaic (in cellphone years, anyway) RAZR V3 is still the top-selling handset in the United States. Of course, it helps that it's highly subsidized on practically every carrier from coast to coast, but we're still a little stunned that it's selling this well nearly 2.5 years after Moto moved its 50 millionth unit. The rest of the top five isn't nearly as shocking, with Apple's iPhone snagging the silver, RIM's BlackBerry Curve grabbing the bronze, LG's Chocolate at number four and the BlackBerry Pearl at five. With the original RAZR still selling so well, one would think Motorola could just tweak it slightly and issue a second iteration for even more windfall profits. Er, wait.

Zvue Spirit: love it or leave it

by Joshua Topolsky posted May 18th 2008 at 11:01PM

If there's one thing that could put a stop to terrorism once and for all, it's this DAP. Nothing strikes fear into the heart of an anti-American jihadist like this hideous MP3 player loaded up with Deerhoof b-sides and the entire Duran Duran back-catalog. The next time you snake under barbed wire and behind enemy lines, let them know where you're coming from by flashing this baby before you unload round after round of righteousness. Sure, it's only got 1GB of storage, but it's not about how many tracks you've got -- it's about showing off your American spirit with this Chinese-made product.

[Via anythingbutipod]

Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable system gets FCC approval

by Darren Murph posted Jan 11th 2008 at 9:45PM

It's not like we haven't seen consortiums working to establish better links between America and Asia, but the more the merrier, right? Apparently, Verizon Business has just recently received the all-important thumbs-up from the FCC to "activate and operate the Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable system in the US." The TPE cable is hailed as "the first next-generation undersea optical cable system directly linking the US and mainland China," and is the first major system of its kind to land on America's West Coast (Oregon, to be precise) in over seven years. For those curious, the 10,563-mile submarine communications cable will be able to support the equivalent of 62 million simultaneous phone calls -- which is "more than 60 times the overall capacity of the existing cable directly linking the US and China" -- and will initially provide capacity of up to 1.28Tbps. So, when will this thing be up and running? If all goes to plan, it should be fully operational by August (you know, prior to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing).

[Image courtesy of Devicepedia]

Cowon's iAudio U5 heads to America

by Darren Murph posted Jan 11th 2008 at 4:10PM

Don't feel bad if the iAudio U5 hasn't creeped into your mind since it "debuted" at IFA last September -- it's not like Cowon's doled out any sort of marketing blitz to keep us intrigued. Nevertheless, this somewhat stylish little DAP is apparently making its way to the US of A for those who like to avoid the me-too crowd. Specs wise, you'll find a 1.8-inch 160 x 128 resolution LCD, up to a full day of battery life, 4GB / 8GB of internal memory, MP3 / WMA / WAV playback, a built-in FM radio and voice recorder, user adjustable five-band EQ and USB connectivity. Good enough for you? Cough up $149.99 / $109.99 to snag one in 8GB or 4GB, respectively.

Half of US households own a digital television

by Darren Murph posted Dec 29th 2007 at 11:09AM

We already learned that some 28-percent of US households were rocking at least one HDTV back in March, but now the Consumer Electronics Association has come forward with new figures showing that over half of American abodes are home to a digital television. According to revamped CEA projections, around 32 million DTV units will ship out next year, with 79-percent of those being HD sets. 'Course, the downside of this is that a good chunk of America still isn't prepared for the DTV cutover in 2009, but thanks to all the advertising that will likely be taking place over the next year and change, we'd say they've got plenty of time to get on board.

Takara Tomy's i-SOBOT headed stateside?

by Darren Murph posted Sep 17th 2007 at 6:31AM

We're not exactly sure how much we trust i-SOBOT's MySpace page, but if you're a believer, this creature will be headed to America real soon. Interestingly, it purports that the primary reason for making the leap to the US is to "study our culture," which is likely a suave way of suggesting that its totally scoping out our defenses as the clan back home develops a sufficient takeover strategy. Nevertheless, word on the street has this bad boy landing stateside before Christmas for $300 - $350, so there's still a few months left to prepare for the seemingly inevitable invasion.

[Via Gearlog]

8GB iriver clix 2 now available in US

by Darren Murph posted Sep 12th 2007 at 6:35PM

Yeah, we know our overseas brethren have been toying with their 8GB clix 2 DAPs for awhile now, but as these things usually go, we Americans are celebrating late. Nevertheless, the US iriver store is now offering up the 8GB clix 2 for purchase, and it still touts that lovable 2.2-inch AMOLED display, an FM tuner, integrated voice recorder, up to 24-hours of battery life, and USB 2.0 connectivity. All yours for $239.99.

Chinese company interested in American Hard Disk Drive manufacturer

by Conrad Quilty-Harper posted Aug 26th 2007 at 5:27PM

An unnamed Chinese company has expressed interest in purchasing an American Hard Disk Drive manufacturer, which has predictably sparked the interest of the American Government ever paranoid about technology "security." Mr. Bill "Seagate is for porn" Watkins disclosed this overture from an unnamed company, eloquently stating that "The U.S. government is freaking out" whilst saying that Seagate was not the target company -- although apparently the company would find it hard to refuse a generous offer from a Chinese company. In the end though the whole mini-ruckus seems much ado about nothing: the New York Times seems to think that the Chinese will only go through with a bid if it doesn't ruffle the feathers in Washington, and one can only imagine the resulting "ruffling" if this high tech purchase rumor transitioned from mere conjecture to the realms of possibility. And all this over something as seemingly trivial as storage.

HTC Touch to launch first in Taiwan, US bound by year's end

by Darren Murph posted Jun 12th 2007 at 3:01PM

Good news for those of you in Taiwan (and America, too) who can't wait to get acquainted with HTC's Touch, as its creator has reportedly announced that it will be deployed shortly in its "home base," with an American launch to go down before the dawn of 2008. Peter Chou, chief executive officer at HTC, has purportedly stated that it would "only be fitting if the first country in Asia to sell the Touch was Taiwan," and also noted that Chunghwa Telecom would be its "exclusive partner in distributing and retailing the handset" in that country. On the home front, all we know is that the Touch should indeed be found on American shelves before the year's end, but here's to hoping it's closer to today than December 31st.

Read - HTC launch in Taiwan
Read - HTC launch in USA