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Boost Mobile sweetens unlimited plans with free 411, adds Samsung Rant this month
Boost is already known for offering up one of the more aggressive prepaid unlimited plans in the industry, pushing all-you-can-eat voice, messaging, and web for $50 a month -- but it's upping the ante just a tad today on news that customers of both its $50 plan and its $60 BlackBerry plan now have free access to 411 information, instant messaging, and email. Then again, it seems like we're past the point where carriers should be differentiating between types of data, but the fact that Boost offers dumbphones almost exclusively across its range gives it more leeway than most for this sort of stratification. Oh, and to take advantage of the new hotness, Boost would like to cordially invite customers to take a look at the Samsung Rant, a device that actually launched a good long while ago on Sprint but now makes its way over to Boost on May 19 for $149.99 (contract-free, of course). The landscape slider's got full QWERTY, EV-DO, a 2 megapixel cam, microSD support up to 16GB, and an analog of Sprint's own One Click UI. Like red? Good, 'cause it's launching in red. Follow the break for Boost's full press release.
T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide official: Android 2.1, QWERTY, coming in June (we go hands-on)
Hey, CLIQ, better check that rear-view mirror, because you've got an interesting competitor coming right up on your tail. T-Mobile is launching another midrange Android QWERTY slider -- some might argue the G1's true successor -- christened the myTouch 3G Slide (not quite the "myTouch Slide" we've been hearing for a few months) with a 3.4-inch HVGA display, 5 megapixel camera, and a pretty heavily-customized skin based on Android 2.1. How custom are we talking, exactly? Well, it's not quite like anything we've seen on a production Android device before, featuring a host of custom apps including the "Faves Gallery," a social aggregator for your most dearly beloved contacts; "myModes," a profile manager that can change the phone's themes and settings based on time or location; the Swype keyboard in place of Google's option; and the so-called "Genius Button," which seeks to extend Android's already decent voice command and text-to-speech systems by allowing you to do just about anything on the phone using your voice, hear messages read back to you, and so on. In the myTouch 3G tradition, the Slide will come in a selection of colors when it launches in June -- black, white, or red -- for a to-be-announced price. Check out T-Mobile's full press release along with our impressions of the device after the break %Gallery-92234% %Gallery-92237%
Flip Slide HD review
Sure, it was leaked over a week early, but the Flip Slide HD is still quite a surprise in many ways. If you'd asked us to bet, we'd have put money on the next Flip camera including minor-but-important enhancements like image stabilization and perhaps a 1080p sensor with better low-light performance. After all, competitive products like the Kodak Zi8 and Sony Bloggie get great reviews for these simple incremental feature additions, and it's been nearly a year and a half since the original Flip Mino HD came out. But apparently you get to play by different rules when you own nearly 40 percent of the "shoot and share" camera market, and Flip's latest cam eschews the spec upgrade game in favor of repackaging the Mino HD into a radical new form factor with a tilt-slide screen that's designed as much for playback as it is for recording. It's an interesting take on sharing video, but we can't say it's worth it -- especially not for $279. Read on for our full review. %Gallery-90845%
Flip Slide HD officially official, on sale now
After a week of essentially non-stop leaks from Best Buy, Cisco's finally coming clean with the Flip Slide HD, the newest member of its Flip family. Obviously the big feature here is that pop-up three-inch screen -- when folded down and in record mode, it's a resistive touchscreen version of the Flip Mino button layout, but when it's time to play back you can pop it open for easy viewing. Thankfully, it's got a headphone jack in addition to stereo speakers and HDMI out, so you don't have to annoy everyone around you during playback. Camera-wise, the Slide is identical to the Flip Mino HD, so you're getting 720p video with no image stabilization, although storage has been bumped to 16GB for four hours of record time and 12 hours of compressed video storage. We'll be honest and say we're on the fence about resistive here, especially since that capacitive touch slider control below the screen in the open position suggests the touchscreen isn't responsive enough for navigation, but plenty of Flips get used on ski slopes and during other glove-intensive activities, so we can see the resistive rationale. We're less ambivalent about the $279 price tag, though -- for that money you can get any number of very nice HD video-capable point-and-shoot cameras with three-inch screens, all of which offer better lenses, better sensors, and image stabilization. Our review unit is due to arrive imminently, so we'll wait to use one before we make up our minds -- but if don't want to wait for us you can buy one from Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart, and theflip.com right this second. %Gallery-90352% %Gallery-90353%
Archos promises six Internet Tablets this summer for hands of all sizes
If you're suffering from Goldilocks Syndrome, unable to find the perfect portable device, Archos is releasing a suite of suite of Internet Tablets this summer and surely one of them will be just right for your choosy tastes. The company looks poised to launch six of the things according to a slide that slipped out from a presentation given by Archos CEO Henri Crohas. The slide (above) shows a mockup image of six separate tablets, which are said to range in price from $100 to $350 with processors ranging from 800MHz up to 1GHz and screens from 3- to 10-inches. This single slide is all that we have to go on at this point, so go ahead and eat your porridge already before it gets too cold. We'll bring you more news on these when we have it.
Flip Slide HD inevitably sold early by Best Buy
At this point it would have been more surprising if Best Buy hadn't just gone ahead and sold the Flip Slide HD before its official launch -- we've been getting leaked info and product shots from the retailer for a week now, and it was really only a matter of time before someone went home with one. That someone is our new favorite reader Scott Peterson, who nabbed one at the Roseville, California store for $279 and was kind enough to send in this photo and a quick video of the pocket cam in action. It looks like... a pretty chunky Flip with a slideout touchscreen instead of real buttons. We're also seeing a headphone jack in addition to HDMI out, which no other Flip has had, so we're guessing this thing is geared towards on-the-go playback as well as recording. Cute. Unfortunately we won't know what's what for sure until Cisco actually confirms that this thing is real -- and at this point it might as well just get it over with, as we're sure Best Buy is busy leaking the next model already. Video after the break. [Thanks, Scott]
myTouch Slide leaks from Radio Shack Direct2U system
What do we have here, then? According to an anonymous tipster, this is the first appearance of the rumored myTouch Slide -- the alleged and presumed successor to the G1 on T-Mobile -- in Radio Shack's (um, "The Shack's") Direct2U system. These things are always to be taken with a grain of salt, but really -- who would fake this? All we can say is that we sure hope that when the image does arrive ("soon") it looks a sight better than the pics we've already seen.
Flip Slide HD caught at Best Buy, slides into camera's view (updated)
All we have is this one image, care of a gracious anonymous tipster who said it was found at Best Buy. Our best guess? Well, it's a Flip camcorder, and there's a sliding element to it -- amazing deduction skills, we know. Perhaps Cisco has something up its sleeve soon? Inquiring minds want to know. Update: We got some more pics in from a tipster -- they're after the break!
Lenovo X201 Tablet, W701 and new L series revealed by ThinkPad roadmap slide (updated)
Our crack team over at Engadget Chinese has managed to snag the above roadmap slide for Lenovo's mobile computer division. We've seen earlier versions of the same slide -- when the Edge and T410 / T510 were freshly added -- but the very latest iteration contains a sprinkling of even newer machines. Most intriguing will be the L400 and L500, which are set to replace the former "corporate mainstream" mainstay R series, which incites the more hopeful among us to believe that perhaps a new chassis design is on the cards too. No less notable are the new X201 models, though we might surmise by the mild numerical change that they'll just be upgraded to low-voltage Arrandale CPUs and left well enough alone. For more info on the likely specs of the W701, you should check out our breakdown of its FCC appearance right here. Update: In light of the X201 discovery, we've combed through our CES 2010 imagery and found a photo of an X200 with a touchpad, which was a curious thing to see when Lenovo has never sold such a creation. Our suspicion is that the X200 on display was in fact an early showing of the touchpad-enabled X201 that is soon to come. Browse past the break for the evidence.
Kohjinsha's dual-screen DZ Series laptop now for sale
Remember IBM's ThinkPad 701 with the butterfly keyboard? This isn't it, it's better... conceptually anyway. Instead of two halves of a keyboard magically jigsawing themselves together, Kohjinsha achieves a similar result with its DZ-series using a pair of 10.1-inch TFT displays with 1,024 x 600 pixel resolution (each) packed into an otherwise svelte 1.02 x 8.26 x 0.74~1.65 inches / 4.09 pounds (1.84 kg) portable. Best of all it's on sale now for ¥95,800 (about $1,110) with a Linux pre-load -- add another ¥5,000 (about $58) for 32-bit Windows 7 Home Premium. For that you get a 1.6GHz AMD Athlon Neo with RS780MN chipset and ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, 3x USB, a 3-in-1 card reader, 1.3 megapixel webcam, 1GB memory (expandable to 4GB), and 160GB 5,400RPM hard disk with claimed 4.5-hours "max" of battery power (1.1V, 5200mAh) -- likely far less in real-world usage. Ships worldwide ($60ish for US or €50ish for European delivery) in 3 weeks if you order today. Video of the sliding action after the break from our hands-on session back at the CEATEC show in Japan.
Sony Ericsson's "Bruce" and "Tobey" C905a pictured with AT&T in mind
Here are a couple Sony Ericssons we've known AT&T is planning on releasing, but it's always good to see some more confirmation. The "Bruce" appears to be the W518a, which is a North American tweak of the W508a -- nothing mind-blowing, but it's got a 3.2 megapixel camera, QVGA display, external music controls, and HSDPA on board; maybe the coolest thing here (and something we didn't know before) is that AT&T intends to let buyers design their own custom covers for the phone online. The Tobey is really where it's at, though. This is the C905a, the big shooter -- literally -- that should do battle with T-Mobile's CS8. It's got an 8.1 megapixel camera with xenon flash in a slider form factor, accompanied by a 2.4-inch QVGA display, Video Share, TV-out, and HTML browsing. Disturbingly, both of these devices have already missed their target availability dates -- and anyone still reeling from the K850 disaster has to be a little concerned that one or both of these could be delayed indefinitely or canceled.
Nokia's 6600i brings 3G, big camera without any nostalgia
Back when you were nothing more than a twinkle in your daddy's eye, the Nokia 6600 was among the first S60 devices ever to reach American shores when it launched on T-Mobile in 2004. The 6600i of today, though, is a very different beast -- a Series 40 handset that Nokia hails as its smallest and lightest 5 megapixel slider to date. Besides the cam, you've got 15fps VGA video recording, dual-band UMTS with quadband EDGE, Bluetooth, microSD expansion, and a QVGA display clocking in at a tight 2.2 inches. It'll be available in "select markets" next quarter for €200 (about $273) -- but honestly, it'll never take the place of the beloved 6600 in our hearts.
G1 themes help Sidekick users cope with feelings of inadequacy
Look, we know how it goes. Rent before new phone. 18 months left on your contract. Your mom kicked you out. They're all very valid reasons to keep on keepin' on with your current Sidekick, but that still doesn't alleviate the pain felt by wanting a T-Mobile G1 with every fiber of your being, now does it? Enter CubanitaStylezz, a theme designer who has taken the time to craft a few new ones for your Sidekick LX / Sidekick Slide / etc. that will make you feel just like the proud new owner of a G1. Almost. At any rate, tap the links below to get your poser on -- and remember, there's no shame in that game.[Via Hiptop3]Read - G1 themes for Sidekick IRead - G1 themes for Sidekick II
Nokia 2680 slide garners FCC attention in AT&T trim
Who knew that AT&T's customer base constituted an "emerging market"? Certainly not us, but Nokia's 2680 slide -- a phone Nokia itself said was targeted at so-called "replacement buyers" in emerging markets -- has just been spotted all up in the FCC's business bearing an AT&T logo front and center (well, actually, it's toward the bottom, but you get our drift). It includes an FM radio, MP3 ringtone support, a low-end cam, and an unsubsidized price of €75 (about $114), so we suspect this'll likely find a home on GoPhone. If it does end up on the postpaid roster, though, expect it be about as close to free as they come.
Sidekick Slide discontinued
Seems like just yesterday we were huddled in excited discussion over what sort of equipment Motorola had to contribute to the Hiptop world, and if you've blinked recently, you may have missed it altogether. The Sidekick Slide has now been dropped from T-Mobile's lineup -- likely in response to the recent release of the Sidekick -- now moving on to join the iD in Danger purgatory. Stock of Moto's sole Danger-powered handset has already dried up online; the carrier tells us that there should still be "limited quantities" in stores across the land, but there's no telling how long that's going to last, so get 'em while you can -- if you're into that sort of thing.
A public service announcement regarding Mag Kid and cinder blocks
This just in: if any of you were curious enough to import Nintendo's Slide Adventure: Mag Kid, complete with its unusual "slide sensor" peripheral, then do not play it while resting your DS on top of your cinder block. We are deadly serious here: as far as we can ascertain, playing the game on your other individual masonry units is safe. This advice is brought to you by the Slide Adventure: Mag Kid instruction manual, which also recommends you don't play the game atop a grand piano, and avoid pointing the slide sensor's laser directly at your eyeballs. Head to Aeropause for more hilarious scans of the manual (which totally reminded us of the ker-razy Japanese Wii safety pamphlet).
T-Mobile rolls out Sidekick Slide Scarlet
As expected, Motorola and T-Mobile have materialized a new variant of the Sidekick Slide, replacing that rather polarizing shade of purple with... well, an equally polarizing shade of red. The Sidekick Slide Scarlet, as it's known, features the same QVGA display, 1.3 megapixel cam, microSD slot, and Hiptop-first sliding display as the original and is available starting today for $199.99 on contract.
Bell Canada set to unleash LG Vantage and Samsung Ace
Bell Canada seem to have decided that cool, tricked out mobiles are what the customers are clamoring for, and we'd bet they're right. The Samsung Ace (on left) and LG Vantage are set to spill onto shelves in the very near term. The Ace is a dual-mode phone featuring both EV-DO connectivity and dual-band GSM -- No 3G in sight, sadly -- Windows Mobile 6 Standard, 1.3 megapixel camera -- seriously, why bother? -- microSD, and that lovely Blackjack look and feel. The Ace is set to launch May 12, though no word on pricing just yet. Also new on the scene is the LG Vantage, a really slick looking Slide-esque slider but with a touchscreen, 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and a microSD slot that'll allow up to 4GB of memory. The Vantage is set for launch on the 16th May and tentative pricing is set at $225 on a three year, $325 on two years, and $425 off contract. Well done Bell, nice to see a little more international roaming sans having to buy into a BlackBerry.[Via MobileInCanada and terence889 on Howardforums]
Sidekick Slide turning red for round 2?
Boy Genius Report is reporting (it is the Boy Genius Report, after all) that the Motorola-sourced Sidekick Slide will be getting a second variation on T-Mobile come late May or early June, this time around in a lovely shade of red to compliment the same glossy black shell as the original. We can see how the purple might be a bit intense for some folks, so red should be a decent alternative; we don't think the picture's real here, but it gets the point across. With the iD out of the picture, it seems like T-Mobile has some ramping up to do in the palette department -- and really, how much longer can we go without a Dwayne Wade LX?
T-Mobile replacing faulty Sidekick Slide with Sidekick LX
While we can't help but feel all warm and fuzzy inside whenever a manufacturer owns up to defects that originated on its end, it's even better when affected customers are looked after for their troubles. According to GigaOM, users dealing with a malfunctioning Sidekick Slide can swap their unit for a shiny new Sidekick LX free of charge, and if for whatever reason that doesn't get your juices flowin', you can opt to exchange it and put the purchase price towards another handset. If you're dead set on just keeping your current Slide, you can simply wait things out until a fix is announced, but you won't find us passing up on any offers to upgrade gratis.