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SanDisk and Philips team for mobile payments
Philips has been peddling its SmartMX contactless payment system for a while, but things are really looking up now that SanDisk wants to get in the game. They're now working with Philips to include the SmartMX tech in their TrustedFlash microSD cards, allowing any phone with a microSD slot to make payments. The details are a bit slim, but it looks like you would have to buy TrustedFlash cards loaded with "credits" in order to make payments, which frankly doesn't sound like much of a step towards convenience for consumers, but rather a boon to SanDisk and Philips who will no doubt be taking a cut. However it works out, the industry is clearly marching towards contactless and phone-based payments, let's just hope it works out as an actual plus for the people who are carrying around the phones and making the contactless payments.[Via Gadget Review]
Bluetake's BT500+ Bluetooth mouse
Well, speaking of Bluetooth mice, it looks like Bluetake's got a new wireless mouse of their own kicking around, the 700mAh rechargeable Bluetooth 1.2 compliant BT500+. We all know what these things do and how they work, so we'll leave the white plastic aesthetic and ergonomic judgement to the court of public opinion. No word so far as we can tell on price or release, but it shan't cost you all that much.[Via GeekZone]
Ask Engadget: who likes their Bluetooth mouse?
You've got questions, and well, the rest of you have answers. That's right, it's time for Ask Engadget. You hit us up at ask at engadget dawt com with the questions you'd like your Engadget-reading peers to take on, and we'll let them sort it out in our comments. Last time Serge wanted a good home NAS solution, but this time Drew's got an easy one:Here is a good one for all of the Boot Camp converts. What is the best 2 button Bluetooth mouse!Well, what do you say? We're sure there's more than a few of you out there who stopped waiting for that god forsaken Bluetooth Mighty Mouse and broke down and bought something else. You like what you got? Let us know!
Hyon's VT-300 music player doubles as Bluetooth headset
If you're tired of all those phones trying to step on your music player's toes with included, yet clunky, MP3 functionality, fight back with Hyon's new VT-300 device that includes what is most likely clunky Bluetooth headset functionality along with regular music playback. Along with your usual music playback, voice recording, and FM functions, the VT-300 can manage most phone functions like receiving calls and text messages, or even dialing numbers from you phonebook using the color LCD display. It also sounds an alarm if it strays to far from your phone while its paired over Bluetooth, to prevent theft and to provide for awkward social situations. Sizes range from 128MB to 1GB, but there's no word on price or availability. We're guessing "cheap" and "Korea." [Via Phoneyworld]
Seagate's 750GB Pushbutton Back-up Hard Drive
We'd heard it, it leaked, it got reviewed, then announced, now it's time to get your 750GB perp drives on people. Seagate's new 750GB Pushbutton Back-up Hard Drive isn't by an means out of the ordinary -- it's an external drive with USB 2.0 and FireWire, the only difference is it's 750GB in a single drive, not two drive in RAID 0. For what you're getting the $559 doesn't even really seem that out of control, and you'll have your chance to get one starting next month, according to Seagate. We're not going to ask what the hell kind of data you've got that requires you to go buy a 750GB drive (or a couple of 'em for an array, as it were), but copious storage early adopters, we tip our hats to you.
Address book back up solution roundup
Just like our mother used to say: "backing up your data isn't just a good idea, it's the law!" (Or something like that.) Anyways, PC World has a nice little roundup of address book backup solutions for your phone. They run the gamut of convenient, but expensive, carrier-based solutions, interesting SIM card readers and hardware dongles, and tried and true PC software for those with USB sync cables, so hopefully you can find something that fits your style. We prefer to have our people call their people when it comes to using teh phonez, and don't know these "address books" of which we speak, but your mileage may vary with this method.
LG's Style-i "hands-free" headset available from Verizon
LG's Style-i, the Bluetooth cellphone accessory that took the "hands-free" out "of "hands-free headset," is now available exclusively from Verizon, and for a little cheaper than the $150 we originally reported. As you'll no doubt recall from our original mocking write-up of the Style-i, this Haier P7-lookalike is designed for the same purpose as other Bluetooth headsets -- to let you make calls while your phone is charging or in a bag -- but without the convenience of, you know, freeing up your hands. Actually, LG almost had us sold on this $130 product until we found out that you can't daisy-chain two of them together -- how are you supposed to pick up a call if both your phone and first Style-i are charging simultaneously?[Thanks, Brett]
Exploding SE phone charger hits three year-old
Far be it from us to revel misfortunes of others, but is it really heartless of us to have a chuckle at the thought of a little kid getting nailed in the chest by phone charger shrapnel? Yeah, we suppose it is, but at least we're on the up about it, which is more than we can say about Sony Ericsson and their CST-20 charger. Turns out a UK man recently had a run-in with a rogue CST-20 unit, which after being plugged in for 45 seconds blew up in his kitchen. The room was sprayed with shrapnel, and the man's three year-old son was nailed in the chest with the lid of the unit. Along with tripping the circuit breaker and filling the house with fumes, the explosion managed to get a vulgar yell out of the man's wife upstairs, which really seems to make it all worthwhile. The man doesn't think so, and is of course looking into the matter legally. Sony Ericsson says the CST-20 is built by a different manufacturer than the one responsible for the infamous CST-13 of 2003.[Via textually.org]
Samsung's 2GB MMCmicro cards announced, industry yawns
Samsung just laid their 2GB MMCmicro cards on the table. These little slivers of NAND-based flash memory are said to be the "fastest and highest capacity mobile phone" memory cards available... once they uh, actually ship. Come on Sammy, we're still waiting on your 1GB cards to hit the market, not to mention devices which use them before getting too worked up over this, mkay?
IODATA launches BRD-UM2 & BRD-AM2B Blu-ray drives
Looks like Panny's not the only company showing off their Blu-ray offerings in Japan today. IODATA's got two of their own: the internal BRD-UM2, and external USB BRD-AM2B, which will go for ¥110,250 and ¥121,800, respectively (that's $942 US and $1,041 US, also respectively). Looks like these will also burn dual-layer BD-R and BD-RE media, as well as your usual DVD±RW and CD-RW, and will even beat Panasonic's offering to market by a solid 9 days with a June 1st release date. So keep an eye out with your favorite gadget importer and keep that credit card clean.[Via Impress]
Panasonic LF-MB121JD Blu-ray drive ships June 10th for $850
In what would appear to be a global release, though it's unclear from the machine translation, Panasonic just announced that they will be shipping their LF-MB121JD Blu-ray Disc drive for PCs (not to be confused with their DMP-BD10 player expected in September) in OEM, regular, and slimline slot-loading form factors, starting 10 June with support for 13 BD / DVD / CD formats. The drive delivers on both 25GB and dual-layer 50GB Blu-ray discs allowing you to write at 2x (72Mbps) speeds to both BD-R / RE formats via a suite of bundled software. It also features 8x write speeds to both DVD±R and DVD RW, 4x to DVD±R DL, 6x to DVD-RW, 5x to DVD-RAM, 24x to CD-R and 16x to CD-RW. Pretty much the same unit (and may well be) as the BenQ BW1000, but superior to both the Samsung SH-B022 (which can read but not write to DVD and CD formats) and the Pioneer BDR-101A which, oddly, the last time we looked, didn't support CDs at all. Panasonic also announced their 25GB and 50GB 2x discs which will hit the shelves starting April 28 just in time to prime the pump a bit.[Via Newlaunches]
Plantronics' MX203S for musicphones and two other low-end headsets
Nothing much to see here, but Plantronics just announced their MX203S, MX200 and MX250 wired headsets, priced at $30, $20 and $25 respectively. The MX203S (pictured) supports musicphones, with stereo earbuds, and a button to switch from music to a phone call. There is also a WindSmart tech to cancel wind noises, but that's about all that's going on here. The MX200 is a single earpiece design, and the MX250 sports a boom, but that's about it. All three headsets should be available this month.
Samsung patent uses projector and electronic pen for virtual screen
We're a little confused, since yesterday the word was that Samsung had teamed up with Iljin Display for packing a projector into their phones, but we guess they need to have their bases covered. Samsung has just been granted a patent they submitted in 2004 for a virtual input interface, a bit similar to that virtual keyboard from iTech. It involves a phone-based projector, an "electronic pen," a "position detector" and some handwriting recognition stuff. Yeah, we know, real technical-like, but it sounds like yet another vain attempt to create a better way to input text and other info into a mobile phone. Can't fault them for trying, but let's hope the mind-reading efforts are well under way.[Via Unwired View]
Korea's Iljin Display promises phone projectors next year
Most of these projects to squeeze a projector into your phone seem to be all talk and no projection, but this new effort for Iljin Display seems to be, dare we say it, grounded in reality. So far they've only got a prototype of their coin-sized unit on display, which can throw a 7-inch color image onto a wall, but they've got deals with Samsung and LG to start including projectors in phones starting next April. Iljin apparently hasn't been just playing around with the idea, with 156 million US invested in their Single LCD Panel tech so far, and they see projectors making their way to five percent of handsets by 2010, of which they hope to have a 30 percent market share. If everything pans out we might not have to wait quite as long as we thought to start projecting our own in-flight movies, but we'll believe it when we see it.[Via picturephoning.com]
Panasonic shows off DMP-BD10 Blu-ray player final design
I4U got their hands on photos of what Panasonic is claiming to be the final design of their first consumer Blu-ray player, the DMP-BD10, pictured here with the company's SA-XR700 receiver. As you can see, Panny has dropped most of the external controls we saw on their prototype at CES, and implemented a cleaner look that more closely matches the design of their other home theater products. Unfortunately no new info is available concerning pricing, but hopefully we'll be able to nail down a MSRP a little less vague than "under $1,500" well in advance of this product's scheduled September release.
Guitar Hero hack - a sequencer is born
Here's a class project that you probably wish you'd managed to get credit for. By interfacing the Guitar Hero peripheral with a sequencing program, these students at the University of California have managed to turn the five-button guitar into something approaching a real musical instrument. From novelty sound effects to an almost orchestral piece, it's an impressive start which could spark off a whole series of musical Guitar Hero hacks.[Via /.]
Novatel EV-DO ExpressCard next month?
We've still yet to hear of any solid 3G ExpressCard device releases as yet (we were kind of hoping CTIA would have yielded at least one or two), but Om seems to have the scoop on a Novatel EV-DO ExpressCard 34 launch for May -- whose most obvious application right now is, of course in Apple MacBook Pros. Granted, we wouldn't be in this predicament if Apple had just followed through with internal integrated 3G like so many other laptop manufacturers, but hey, you've got what we've got, and we'll takes what we can gets. There's no way of knowing, however, when the cards will hit the market with Sprint or Verizon even if Novatel launches their card in May, so stay tuned. [Via TUAW, image via EVDOinfo]
Kyocera and Zeal Optics get Confidante
Not quite the same as the O RAZR (at least not in looks), Zeal Optics and Kyocera came together to co-develop the Confidante, which they were showing off at CTIA (click on for a hands on). Unlike other Bluetooth glasses, the Bluetooth module is removable in these, so when something breaks and you've got to send your radio in to the shop, at least you won't be without your otherwise unjustifiably thick frames.
BenQ A2DP stereo Bluetooth adapter is FCC approved
The FCC site just coughed up the approved, BenQ Bluetooth Stereo Headphone. Yeah, headphone, not cellphone. This A2DP compliant module is meant to clip onto your kit somewhere allowing you to listen to stereo audio via the tethered headphone of your choice. Think Sony Ericsson HBH-DS970 but with more bulk, no display (apparently), and mucho less style. Expect it to drop in your part of the world with a model number anywhere between HHB-180, 181, 182, or HBH-183 for the black model or HHB-185, 186, 187, or HBH-188 for white. But never, ever, HBH-184 for the same inexplicable reason that might cause you to actually purchase this device. [Via MobileWhack]
Sprint announces EV-DO router and USB dongle
Instead sitting back and frowning on bandwidth hogging EV-DO to WiFi routers, Sprint has decided to jump into the game themselves with a new device made by Linksys. Accompanying the new router -- which, like current solutions, merely hosts existing PCMCIA EV-DO cards -- is a new USB dongle that brings EV-DO functionality to owners of laptops that lack PC card slots, or adventurous desktop users. Both products are due in the second half of this year, with the router going for "slightly under $200." The USB dongle still lacks a price, but we imagine it will be rather popular, especially for MacBook Pro owners with their incredibly functionless ExpressCard slots.[Thanks, Michael]
