Venus
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LG Venus, Voyager details aplenty ahead of November releases
Trying to wrap your noodle around the concept of a pink LG Venus? Us too, and naturally, visuals help -- the more, the better. On that note, we're pleased to present a handful of pictures of the pink Venus with a couple of its darker, statelier cousin thrown in for good measure. The black will launch first -- November 19, if you recall -- with the pink following on December 11 for $199 after a $50 rebate has been applied. QWERTY more to your liking? Fret not, as we're hearing the Voyager follows up on the 21st of November for $299 with the same $50 rebate.[Thanks, anonymous tipster]%Gallery-9933%
Quick start guide offers sneak preview of LG Venus
For devoted LG fans, each incarnation of the Chocolate line of music phones has been a step up from the one before it. With the LG Venus sporting new features like touch-screen navigation and being more ergonomically styled, many wonder if the device will live up to the hype. As Verizon prepares for online availability in the coming weeks, we thought it'd be fair to add more fuel to the flame with the quick start guide, yeah? Have a look!%Gallery-9854%
LG Venus details get fleshed out
We already had a pretty good idea of what LG's Venus slider handset would look like, but the folks at phoneArena have now fleshed out a few more of the phone's details, including word on pricing and availability. As we knew before, the phone sports a pair of screens on its face, which phoneArena has now clarified will be a 2-inch QVGA display up top, and a 1.49-inch, 176 x 240 touchscreen below. The site also got word that the phone will be a bit taller and wider than the VX8550 Chocolate, but not as thick, and that it'll be available in black or pink. If that's enough to sway you in its favor, you'll be able to get your hands on one on November 19th for $199 -- after a $50 rebate and a two-year contract, that is.
Crystal ball (or spreadsheet, in this case) reveals Verizon release dates
We've caught boatloads of noise detailing Verizon's pipeline for the remainder of the year (and possibly into early '08), but exact launch dates have been harder to come by. Granted, the carriers often don't know these until the last minute anyway -- network test failures and supply problems being what they are -- but Boy Genius Report has scored a spreadsheet that should at least start to give us a rough idea of what we can expect for the next few months. The Samsung i760 finally (and we do mean finally) launches on October 19, followed by the Juke two days later on the 21st. The first of November sees the BlackBerry Pearl 8130, LG VX5400, and Palm Treo 755p (probably right about the same time Alltel gets it), with the LG Venus coming just a short few days later on the 4th. The 15th sees two new shades for the G'zOne Type-S -- black and "burgundy / gold" -- alongside the Samsung u900 "FlipShot." The ultra-cool LG Voyager and G'zOne "Type-Sptt" (possibly just a Type-S without the cam) slide in on November 18, with two new VX8550 shades dropping on the 21st. Whew! Now, the real question: how many of these dates are actually gonna hold?
Hands-on with Verizon's new fall lineup
We got to spend a little alone time with each of Verizon's new phones for the holidays, and we found plenty to like. We started out with the Samsung Juke, which is meant as an entry level music device. There's no EV-DO on board, and therefore no V CAST Music Store, but as a "phone that happens to be a low-end 2GB DAP," it should do just nicely, and A2DP is always nice. We could go for a stronger spring action flick motion, and when open the phone seems quite awkwardly long, but it's all solid and usable enough. The Pearl is just a Pearl, so we'll move on. The LG Venus has quite an interesting interface, that we suppose will be a love it or hate it affair. There's adjustable vibration feedback to your finger presses on the bottom touchscreen, but unfortunately you can't adjust screen sensitivity, and we had sometimes had trouble with getting the beta hardware Verizon was showing us to register our finger presses. Otherwise the phone is a thing of beauty, and has one of the best looking UIs we've seen from the likes of Verizon and LG. The camera interface is particularly polished, with options galore and some interesting usage of the touch screen for cropping and sending pics. Finally we have the LG Voyager. In most objective senses, the phone is pretty dang large, but somehow it's easier to overlook that fact when you're staring at dual screens and an immense QWERTY keyboard. The screen was quite responsive to our button presses, and there was no lag between using an app in touchscreen mode and opening up the phone for a QWERTY session. The HTML browser leaves a little to be desired -- after taking ages to load a fractured form of Engadget, we couldn't hardly scroll down it to save our life -- and it's pretty clear that the Voyager is less a smartphone out of the box than the iPhone is, despite its marvelous keyboard, but there's certainly a lot of potential.%Gallery-8109%%Gallery-8110%%Gallery-8111%%Gallery-8112%
Engadget Mobile goes hands-on with Verizon's fall line
Shiny screens galore, the iPhone opposing LG Voyager, and the more V CAST than you can shake a stick -- Verizon's new lineup has been announced, and we bet you want to know what those hunks of silicon feel like in hand. Who you gonna call? Engadget Mobile, of course.
Verizon's LG Voyager heads up newly official fall lineup
Verizon isn't kidding around this fall, with four new fashionable phones, a couple of which might divert a few iPhone dollars from archrival AT&T. It's those exact four that Engadget Mobile got the scoop on last weekend, the Juke, Pearl, Venus and Voyager. A few of the details have changed, but the basic gist is the same. The Samsung Juke is the first "flick" phone to hit the States, and arrives with 2GB of built-in storage, A2DP (which shows up in all these phones) and a VGA camera, and comes in blue, red or teal. Verizon's BlackBerry Pearl is the first Pearl to get EV-DO and a 3.5mm minijack, and also adds Verizon's VZ Navigator service, which is standard across these phones. The Venus slider sports an interesting dual screen setup, with the bottom providing contextual touch controls and the top one acting like all normal-like. Venus, with black or pink color options, is the real fashionphone of the group, and rocks a boring 2 megapixel sensor, but there's a microSD slot for up to 8GB of expansion. Finally, the Voyager (pictured) does it all, with a full screen touchscreen on the outside, and a second screen on the clamshell interior, facing a gargantuan QWERTY keyboard. V CAST Mobile TV makes an appearance, as does a microSD slot and 2 megapixel camera. All of these phones are supposed to be out by Thanksgiving, but no word on price or exact dates -- though the Juke and Pearl are hitting first, to be followed by the Venus and then the Voyager.%Gallery-8108%
Keepin' it real fake, part LXXXIII: LG's Shine gets a clone
The Shine may already be available in a variety of colors, but we're confident that LG had no part in this one. The so-called Venus JXD205 purports to be your average PMP, sporting AVI / MP3 / WMA / WAV support, a 2.4-inch QVGA color screen, FM tuner, built-in gaming function and an expansion slot that supports cards up to 2GB in size. Interestingly enough, it looks almost identical to a famed member of the Black Label series, but we doubt you'll do much any calling on this thing. Nevertheless, those willing to buy a potential heap can grab the 1GB version for 399CNY ($53), or you can double your capacity for just 100CNY ($13) more.[Via PMPToday, thanks Brian B.]
Engadget Mobile scoops new Verizon lineup
Engadget Mobile's got the word on four new Verizon phones headed for a simultaneous launch in the next couple of weeks, so head on over and get the dirt on the new Juke, Pearl, Venus and Voyager before somebody beats you to it.
Verizon's Juke, Pearl, Venus and Voyager get outed
Apparently due to launch in a couple of weeks, Verizon is prepping a phone blitz of fairly epic proportions. The new Samsung Juke, BlackBerry Pearl, LG Venus and LG Voyager are due for simultaneous arrival on the market, and are sure to turn heads. On the far left is the "Juke," Verizon's name for that U470 we spotted a couple weeks ago, which is supposed to arrive with 2GB of storage, A2DP Bluetooth and a 1.3 megapixel camera. Next up is the "new variety" Pearl rumored since August, with a 2 megapixel camera, A2DP and a 3.5mm audio jack. One to the right is the dual screen "Venus" slider, also known as the LG VX8800. The phone rocks miniSD expansion, A2DP, a 2 megapixel camera and some interesting touchscreen capabilities, including vibration feedback. Finally we have the beast of the bunch on the far right, the LG Voyager, also known as the VX10000. The phone sports a large external touchscreen, along with a lateral-clamshell form factor that opens up into a QWERTY keyboard and another well-sized screen, both screens are QVGA. Verizon is bragging of a full HTML browser, along with the expected microSD expansion, 2 megapixel camera, A2DP and some built-in stereo speakers.[Thanks, anonymous tipster]%Gallery-7966%
This one's for the ladies
As far as "powerful storylines" and "strong well-written characters" go, there haven't been many releases on the DS that we could direct you to. Hotel Dusk works well as an interactive mystery novel, and you could always download the Dubliners eBook -- shout-outs to Moonshell and the Moon Books Project -- but where do you go from there?Independent studio nDreams is convinced that is has a tale in need of telling and is looking to break into the casual gaming business with Venus Redemption, an episodic adventure targeted at 30-plus-year-old female gamers. The planned immersive title will be plotted out by film and new media writer Kate Pullinger and graphic novelist Gordon Rennie. Catering to its casual audience, nDreams promises that the game will be "extremely easy to play, requiring only the ability to move and left-click a mouse."Expect to hear more about Venus Redemption this July 5th when nDreams demonstrates the PC/Wii/DS game to potential publishers and distributors.[Via Joystiq]
