IBLOG SPACE

Moto's i1 went from rumored device to ready for retail over the span of just a few weeks, and now we're finding out just where it'll be available -- though the news isn't exactly good. Motorola is announcing that the iDENdevice will be hitting SouthernLINC first, a rural carrier that you may not have heard of if you're outside of Alabama, Georgia, or the western half of the Florida panhandle. That is the extent of this carrier's coverage, and so it's not a huge coming out party for this military spec push-to-talk smartphone, but we're hoping down the road it gets a little more love from carriers with slightly broader coverage maps.

Talk about a globetrotter. Toshiba's K01 has made the journey from the American FCC to a Japanese carrier in the space of just one day. AU, part of the KDDI group and one of Japan's big three network operators, has picked up the phone and promptly renamed it the IS02. Coming with a 1GHz Snapdragon core, a 4.1-inch capacitive touchscreen of the AMOLED variety, and that indispensable (for some) QWERTY keyboard, thisWinMo 6.5 handset will be available to our Japanese comrades in the latter part of June this year. Given the long waiting times both for this and its brandmate, the IS01, we have to wonder what's up with Japanese carriers. Have they developed an aversion to the cutting edge or what?

Chalk up another two wins for cheap consumer GPS. Like Google Maps Navigation before it, the MapQuest 4 Mobile iPhone app has just now added gratis turn-by-turn voice directions... and ahead of schedule, TomTom has begun bundling its new 2010 Personal Navigation Devices, including the XL 340S and the XXL 540S -- with lifetime traffic and maps subscriptions. The latter are now available on Amazon for a $30-per-lifetime-subscription premium in a variety of increasingly feature-filled flavors, with helpful T (traffic), M (maps) and TM (traffic and maps) suffixes so you know which TomTom is which. If you prefer buying from brick and mortar, TomTom expects retail availability beginning in April. Full list of supported TomTom models and expected MSRP after the break. Update : The 1.5.0 iPhone update to MobileNavigator from Navigon that includes MyRoutes, Facebook and Twitter integration, and Panorama View 3D is finally up on iTunes as well.

Remember that fancy schmancy Christmas Edition of the LG BL40-alike for South Korea's domestic market, the SU630? No? Well, allows us to refresh your memory: the phone took the BL40's basic ultra-wide 21:9 theme and added some gold accents along with an 8 megapixel cam, upgraded from the standard model's 5. Well, here we are a few short months later, and those same gold accents have made another appearance -- this time on an authentic BL40 in Russia, but sadly sans the upgraded camera. It's not clear who's carrying the tweaked model or how many rubles you'll be shelling out for the pleasure, but honestly, didn't the original black / red scheme look gobs sexier anyhow?

Alongside the Get Smart shoe phone, Beijing Gorld's 600TW e-reader / cellphone has to be one of the less useful combos we can imagine. As an E Ink device, it's pretty straightforward -- 6-inch display and a battery life of approximately 6,000 page turns. And there's no denying that the plethora of connectivity options (including SMS messaging, GSM, GPRS, and EDGE, WiFi, and Bluetooth) is a pretty sweet deal. All the same, we can't really picture this thing providing a satisfying handset experience at all. Available in China for 2,880 yuan (about $420).

Recently it’s been all desktops from iBUYPOWER , but the company has outed a new notebook and it looks pretty decent. The iBUYPOWER Battalion Touch CZ-11 range packs Intel Core i7 processors, ATI Radeon HD 5650 graphics and a 15.6-inch Full HD 1920 x 1080 display, the latter of which is multitouch-capable. Whether a multitouch display will actually help you with your gaming is open to debate, but we won’t argue with the Touch CZ-11’s specs in general. As well as a 500GB hard-drive and optional Blu ray, there’s 4GB of RAM and WiFi b/g/n, together with a DVD burner as standard. OS is Windows 7 Home Premium. The iBUYPOWER Battalion Touch CZ-11 range kicks off at $1,100, but expect to pay upward of $1,299 if you want a decent gaming configuration with the Intel Core i7-720QM CPU.

Apple’s iPad might be shipping out to preorder customers, but there’s at least one company who’d like to put a stop to it. Taiwanese company Elan Microelectronics have filed a suit against Apple with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) today, on the premise that the Cupertino company’s multitouch implementation impinges on one of their own patents. If upheld, the ITC could block Apple from bringing iPads – along withiPhones, iPod touch PMPs and the Magic Mouse – into the US. Elan describes their IP as “a fundamental patent to the detection of multi-fingers that allows for any subsequent multi-finger applications to be implemented”, and its choice of the ITC is surprisingly devious. Rather than solely pursue a claim through the courts – which it has been doing since April 2009, in fact – by petitioning the ITC the company stands a chance of blocking Apple’s imports no matter the outcome of the patent thanks to an “unfair trade practice” loophole. Apple can’t complain too much

What’s that you say, an Android 2.1 update for the Motorola DROID ? Pretty demanding, aren’t you. Still, according to a leaked internal Verizon memo that Engadget somehow managed to acquire, your demands have been heard and – if all is going to plan – the first 1,000 people selected to receive the new firmware will have had an on-device notification. That number will grow to 10,000 by midnight tonight, with broader availability promised for this coming Thursday. In-between there’ll be a 24hr period where nobody will get the upgrade, presumably so that the first 10k can be treated as test-subjects and report any DROID-killing bugs that may have made it through quality control. Among the changes users should see are pinch-zoom in the browser, maps and gallery, speech-to-text in any text box, a new Gallery app and Yahoo! Email support (though not, bizarrely, over WiFi). Anybody reading this and seeing the update on their DROID? Let us know in the comments.

If you’re in the market for a beastly mobile workstation then Dell have you covered; the Dell Precision M4500 has finally gone up for sale, complete with a choice of dualcore Core i5 or i7 CPUs or Intel’s quadcore Core i7 chips. Either one or two hard-drives can be specified (either up to 500GB HDD or 256GB SSD) and a choice of NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M or FX1800M graphics. In fact you even have four different displays to choose from, ranging from the basic 15.6-inch 1366 x 768 LED backlit panel, through 1600 x 900 HD+ and HD+ sRGB displays, and finally a Full HD 1920 x 1080 screen. Up to 8GB of memory is supported across two slots, and there’s a choice of DVD or Blu ray burner and an optional 3-megapixel webcam. Connectivity includes optional WiFi a/g/n and HSPA/EVDO Rev.A (WiFi b/g is standard) together with Bluetooth 2.1, and there four USB 2.0 ports, FireWire, VGA, DisplayPort, ethernet, eSATA and audio in/out. Prices kick off at $1,549 for a Core i5-520M based system, but expect to

ASUS may have spilled the beans on their Eee PC 1001PX before now, but its taken the newly-publishedproduct page for us to realise its most alluring feature: a matte-finish display. Surprisingly uncommon on netbooks, the 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 matte panel might just make this the ideal machine for those of you who like to work in the park. Elsewhere the specs are pretty much as we heard before: Intel’s 1.66GHz Atom N450 processor, up to 2GB of memory and up to 250GB of storage. Connectivity includes two USB 2.0, ethernet and VGA, along with audio in/out and a memory card reader. WiFi b/g is standard and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR optional. Last we heard, the Windows XP Home version of the Eee PC 1001PX would run to €241 ($326) while the Eee PC 1001PX running Windows 7 Home Edition shouldn’t be more than €300 ($406). Still no word on exact release dates, however.

TomTom have outed their latest entry-level PND, the TomTom Start2 , and if you prefer to keep your navigation separate from your cellphone then it’s a budget way to avoid getting lost. The Start2 packs a 3.5-inch touchscreen along with RDS-TMC automatic traffic reports using TomTom’s IQ Routes system. Interestingly, the windscreen suction mount is semi-fixed to the Start2, folding flat against the PND when not in use, but giving you one less thing to carry. Other functionality include spoken street names, points of interest and advanced lane guidance, together with speed camera alerts. The Start2 has 2GB of onboard storage, a battery good for up to 2hrs unplugged use, and a QVGA display. Two versions of the Start2 are on offer, a £119 ($180) model with regional mapping data and a £139 ($210) model with full European mapping data. No word on whether the PND will see a US release, but they’re available to order in Europe now.

Hot on the heels of Toshiba’s double-platter 750GB 2.5-inch hard-drive comes Western Digital’s retort, the WD Scorpio Blue 750GB. Intended for notebooks, the 3Gb/s SATA drive spins at 5,400rpm and has 8MB of cache; Western Digital are also pushing their WhisperDrive technology that, they claim, reduces both noise and power consumption. There’s also shock-protection and “SecurePark”, which is used to park the heads more frequently thus reducing the likelihood of impact damage against the platters. It’s actually a little quieter than the Toshiba drive, when idle at least: 22dBA versus 25dBA. Shipments of the new Western Digital 2.5-inch 750GB drive have begun now, priced at $149. We still don’t know how much its Toshiba counterpart will be.

Last time we saw Android running on a previously Windows Mobile device, it was the HTC Touch Pro2 and the Android 2.1 ROM from the Google Nexus One. This time around it’s the turn of the HTC Touch Diamond2, and the Android 2.1 ROM from the HTC Legend, which means as well as all that Google goodness there are lashings of HTC Sense, too. It’s a pretty polished ROM, too, with all but the GPS and camera working (though there are a few reported Bluetooth glitches that should be easy to work around). Obviously in the process of installing you do run the risk of bricking your smartphone, but plenty of people have gone the distance and ended up with a handset showing a new lease of life.

A long time ago before smartphones were the norm many geeks carried around a PDA and if you really wanted to type on the thing you got yourself a folding keyboard too. The folding laptop concept at Yanko Design reminds me of the keyboard I had for my Palm PDA. The concept is festooned with all sorts of logos that it really has no right to wear like Transformers, Windows Mobile, FCC, and several others. Ripped off logos aside, the thing is cool with a screen that folds and a keyboard that folds up as well. The keyboard unfolds to a large QWERTY unit with a track nub like an older ThinkPad. I could actually see this design being well received as a smartbook.

Toshiba is a big name in the electronics world with all sorts of devices from cameras to computers and storage products. The company has filled out its storage line a bit more with the introduction of the Canvio portable hard drive this week. The Canvio is a small HDD with up to 1TB of storage space that is sized for the user to be able to carry in a pocket. The drive is offered in five different colors and four different capacities from 500GB to 1TB. The HDD connects to the computer via USB. It ships with backup software installed called NTI BackupNow EZ that offers step-by-step restore functionality of data on the drive in the event of a computer crash. The 500GB drive sells for $119.99, the 640GB sells for $139.99, the 750GB Canvio Plus goes for $159.99 and the 1TB drive is $199.99.

Garmin has GPS devices for just about every need from boating to driving, walking and running. Garmin has unveiled its latest GPS device for runners called the Forerunner 110. The new 110 was unveiled to get ready for major marathons according to Garmin. The device is an entry level GPS-enabled watch with a heart rate monitor built-in that requires an accessory that can be had bundled with the watch or not bundled with it. The device uses a SiRFstarIV GPS receiver and uses Garmin HotFix tech for accurate reception. The 110 can store up to 200 hours of history so runners can see their totals without uploading to Garmin Connect to do so. The 110 is also water resistant and is slimmer than any other GPS fitness watch on the market.

Panasonic has announced a new line of LCD HDTVs that are in Japan that use IPS LCD panels. The new sets are in the Vieira D2 series 6 line and include multiple screen sizes to choose from ranging from 19-inch to 42-inches. The sets combine IPS LCD panels with LED backlighting and are all set to launch on April 23 in Japan. The screens are very eco friendly with low power use. The TH-L42D2 will ship in June and will have a full 1080p resolution panel. All the other sets will ship in April. The TH-37D2 will have 1080p resolution with the TH-L32D2, TH-L26D2, TH-L22D2, and TH-L19D2 all offering 720p HD resolution. The entire range has Viera Link and Room Jump Links to let the user send recorded shows to other screens in the home for viewing. The contrast ratio is 1M:1 for the screens and pricing is unknown at this time as is availability in other countries.

Last year I bemoaned the state of social networking on mobile devices, and suggested that smartphone software should focus more on intelligently offering up contextually-appropriate information than merely replicating the desktop experience. At the time, I pointed to some ongoing research at Nokia Research called the Linked Internet UI Concept, which promised to learn from your use and attention and thus better serve up news on your friends and colleagues. We’re yet to see any public release of that concept, but Nokia Research have pushed out what could be the first step toward it: Nokia Bots. Nokia Bots – which is initially available only for the Nokia N97 and N97 mini – consist of four intelligent background apps that track your habits and adjust various elements of the smartphone experience accordingly: Profile Bot helps you by automating profile changes during meetings. Alarm Bot learns at what time you usually wake up, and suggests alarms and profile changes nightly. Shortcut Bo

One of the apps that iPhone users wanted the most was Sling Player so they could watch TV shows and other content right on the iPhone. With the iPad coming many are wondering exactly what Sling has in store for SlingPlayer Mobile on the iPad. Sling has stated that the company will in fact offer higher resolution streams on devices where a larger screen size makes sense to do so. Sling goes on to call out the iPad as one of the devices where this will make sense and says that it is hard at work on this app. The catch is that the app will not surface in time for the April launch. Presumably, you will be able to use the SlingPlayer app for the iPhone in the mean time for watching video. Sling has also stated that it is actively moving towards using H.264 and an Android client is still on the way for this summer.

If you are waiting anxiously for that iPad you pre-ordered weeks ago to turn up at your door this weekend, you are not alone. Most of the people who buy the iPad will opt for the WiFi only version rather than the 3G version. That doesn’t mean that the WiFi version users won’t want to access the internet on the go from time to time. Boingo Wireless has announced that its network of WiFi hotspots will support the iPad starting on the day the iPad lands in consumer’s hands. The network of 125,000 hotspots that Boingo operates will all be available to iPad users for $7.95 per month. The service will work on the WiFi and the 3G versions of the device. The $7.95 monthly cost of the service is good for unlimited data use and a WiFi Credits option that lets the user buy access one hour at a time will be offered on the iPad as well.

Asus starting talking up the attractive Designo series of LED backlit computer screens back in September of 2009 when the screens were first confirmed for a European launch. Asus is back today with the announcement of some updated Designo LCDs that are turning up first in Australia. The Designo screens Asus is talking up today include the MS238 and the MS228. Both of the screens share some of the same features with a 10,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and 2ms gray to gray response times. Both of the displays are LED backlit and promise to lower annual energy consumption by up to 45% and lower CO2 emissions by 23.6kg. The MS238H has a 23-inch screen and a resolution of 1920 x 1080. It can display 16.7M colors and has a brightness of 250cd/m2. Connectivity options include HDMI out and VGA out. The MS228H has a 21.5-inch screen and the same 1920 x 1080 resolution, brightness, and color reproduction. The 238H will sell for $599 and the 228H will sell for $499, both of those prices are in

When it comes to gaming mice the things are typically festooned with buttons and lots of features designed to make them perform better for gamers. Sharkoon unveiled a new gaming mouse at CeBIT called the FireGlider. The mouse was originally fitted with a flame motif that might have been a bit to flashy for some gamers. Sharkoon has now announced that it is offering the FireGlider in all black. The mouse has the same features as the original though. It has an ergonomic shape, six buttons that can be programmed, and weight adjustable design. The surface of the mouse has a non-slip texture and ribbed area for the thumb. The sensitivity of the mouse is 3600 DPI and it has a frame rate of 7080 fps and can withstand 20G of acceleration. Sensitivity is adjustable from 600 to 3600 dpi with LED lighting to show the sensitivity level. The mouse is available now for 24.49 Euros.

While we were over at the GCF scoping out the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, we also noticed a new listing for a Samsung handset, the GT-S8500. Better known as the Samsung Wave S8500, the Bada based smartphone-for-the-masses has been approved by the GCF with 900/2100MHz UMTS/HSDPA. Samsung haven’t yet confirmed an official release date for the handset, which uses their own home-grown OS, but previous speculation has pegged it for a Q2 2010 arrival. It’s now looking possible that the release could be sooner in the quarter than that, however; retailer Carphone Warehouse have it listed for April 2010, which would certainly fit in with this new certification. For more on the Wave S8500, check out our hands-on video below and our first-impressions from MWC 2010 last month.

Palm look to be continuing to make good on their promise to turn around company fortunes by leveraging their existing handset line-up, and the next stage in that is a European release of the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus. Spotted crossing the GCF (Global Certification Forum)’s testing as the Palm P101UEU and P121UEU, the two devices are quadband GSM and dualband 900/2100MHz HSDPA. The Palm Pre has already been on sale in various European countries for several months now, though unconfirmed rumors suggested that consumer demand had been less than impressive. So far carrier O2 has been Palm’s partner of choice, offering the Pre in the UK, Ireland, Germany and elsewhere, and it remains to be seen whether Palm continues that exclusivity or – maybe more likely – look to get the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus on as many networks as possible.

We’ve seen iPad-esque tablets coming out of China before now, but this one doesn’t stop at form-factor or touchscreen: it even dresses up Android in an iPad skin. Shanzhai don’t know the specific manufacturer who made this particular homage, but apparently it runs a 600MHz ARM SoC chipset with a 10-inch touchscreen. That’s dressed up in an iPad inspired casing, and if it wasn’t for the fact that the display ratio isn’t the same as the Apple slate’s 4:3 aspect panel, you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference. In fact, the longer display will make for better widescreen video viewing, ironically. Shanzhai reckon the fake iPad will arrive for the equivalent of around $150, which sounds a little on the low side to us (at least given the size of the display). Frankly, we’d take Android on a tablet this size and you could keep the iPad skin.

If you’re in the mood for a new ASUS laptop, set aside half a day or so to go through the company’s upcoming models. Notebook Review forum member – and patient soul – David grabbed ASUS’ latest brochure and went to work snipping out photos and spec sheets of what’s just around the corner. Many of the laptops have already been announced, or at least have some partial specifications attached, but there are some gems in there too. For instance, ASUS have signed up to NVIDIA’s Optimus technology – which can flip automatically between integrated and discrete graphics depending on how you’re using the notebook – across their U-series of machines, and then again on certain UL-series, N-series and PL-series models. There’s also at least one notebook, the ASUS N43JF, which will apparently get NVIDIA GeForce 400-series graphics, which has prompted speculation about a mobile version of the Fermi chipsets the GPU company announced last week. In all there are 36 different SKUs, spanning everythi

With the ease of use and flexibility of digital cameras, how many film-based snappers do you think are still sold? We don’t have figures from across the industry, but according to Leica USA president Roger Horn, less than 5-percent of his company’s cameras sold in the US are analog. Meanwhile Leica UK’s managing director, David Bell, reckons that film cameras account for around 6-percent of the company’s M-series. However Bell also insists that film-based cameras are still relevant, pointing to a strong second-hand market and a cultish popularity in Japan. He blames the US obsession with the latest gadget for the disparity in figures, suggesting that “‘new’ tends to command greater attention”. Still, it remains to be seen whether refreshing Leica’s two analog cameras, the MP and M7, is a priority for the firm.

After Sony’s somewhat bizarre “security” related decision to block Other OS installation on the original PS3 consoles with the next scheduled firmware update, hacker George Hotz – who some believe prompted Sony’s move, after he publicly admitted to having hacked the console back in January 2010 – has promised a lifeline for console owners. His advice is to avoid installing the PS3 firmware v3.21 due on April 1st, and instead wait for an alternative flashing app of his own design. “Two things, some people seem to think CFW will enable some sort of piracy. It won’t. It’ll just be a custom version of 3.21 that doesn’t lose OtherOS support. Hacking isn’t about getting what you didn’t pay for, it’s about making sure you do get what you did.” George Hotz (“geohot”) Time will be against the hacker – who made his name with iPhone exploits – since without the firmware patch in place, PS3 owners won’t be able to access the PlayStation Network or use other multimedia functionality. He is yet to

It’s not just Sharp’s new IS01 that’s arriving in Japan sometime this year; carrier KDDI has also announced that it will be offering the Toshiba TG02 as the KDDI Toshiba IS02. First launched at Mobile World Congress last month, the IS02 is a Windows Mobile 6.5.3 smartphone with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 1GHz Snapdragon processor and 4.1-inch OLED touchscreen; unlike the GSM/UMTS versions demonstrated in Barcelona, however, the KDDI phone will have EVDO Rev.A. There’s also a 3.2-megapixel autofocus camera, WiFi b/g and Bluetooth. It’ll be interesting to see whether this CDMA version makes it over to North America any faster than its GSM equivalent. It’s not all good news, however. Akihabara went hands-on with the IS02 (which goes by the name K01 in the US) and found the experience to be distinctly sub-par. The phone turned out to be unstable and sluggish, and were yet to be optimized for speed. It seems Toshiba weren’t quite ready for KDDI’s launch; hopefully the production devi

We’ve seen various talk, leaks and pre-announcement hints about ASUS‘ latest range of Eee Top models, but the company has finally made official their latest all-in-ones. The line-up now consists of five models with 20-inch displays, together with a 15.6-inch variant, with varying levels of multitouch, GPU and Intel or AMD processors. The ASUS Eee Top ET2010PNT and ET2010PN each us a 1.66GHz Intel Atom D510 processor, with NVIDIA Ion 2 graphics, 2GB of RAM and Windows 7 Home Premium. The ET2010PNT has a 20-inch multitouch display running at 1400 x 900 and a 500GB hard-drive, while the ET2010PN drops the multitouch and gets a 320GB drive. Each has gigabit ethernet, WiFi b/g/n and a DVD burner. Next, the ASUS Eee Top ET2010P has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom D410 processor, 2GB of RAM and a 320GB hard-drive, along with a DVD burner, 1400 x 900 non-touchscreen 20-inch display and Intel NM10 graphics. Connectivity includes gigabit ethernet and WiFi b/g/n, along with six USB ports and a DVD burner

Apple have begun to distribute the iPhone OS 3.2 SDK, complete with final (aka “Golden Master”) support for the iPad, as well as a number of new iPad-related files on their developer site. The new offerings include a firmware build for the iPad – build 7B367 – and the End User Licence Agreement for Apple’s software. Buried into this latter file are apparent details as to how Apple will be managing future iPad software updates, and the good news is that, rather than an iPod touch-like paid model, it seems the tablet should (at least initially) get free firmware boosts. “Apple will provide you any iPad OS software updates that it may release from time to time, up to and including the next major iPad OS software release following the version of iPad OS software that originally shipped from Apple on your iPad, for free. For example, if your iPad originally shipped with iPad 3.x software, Apple would provide you with any iPad OS software updates it might release up to and including the i

Japanese carrier KDDI have unveiled their own Android based offering, and rather than a smartphone it’s a 3G-enabled MID. The Sharp IS01 packs Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon processor, a 5-inch 960 x 480 multitouch display and a full QWERTY keyboard, together with integrated EVDO Rev.A, WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. Since this is a Japanese device, there’s also plenty of stuff the rest of us could never hope of getting, such as a 1-Seg TV tuner. There’s also IrDA, along with dual cameras – a 5.27-megapixel one on the back, and a 0.43-megapixel snapper up front for video calls. Storage is via either 3GB of onboard memory or a microSD card slot, and the whole thing measures in at 149 x 83 x 17.9 mm. Battery life is apparently good enough for 310 minutes of talktime or 200hrs of standby. Sharp are preparing two versions, apparently, one for consumers (which should hit the market in October this year) and another, on sale from May 2010, which is targeted at developers. No word on pricin

Remember that promise from Microsoft at CES this year? They told us that they, for one, weren’t going to forget the Zune HD (in as many words), and told us that a general update would be coming to address the company’s Smart DJ feature, and add Xvid and AVI containers. Well, the update is finally coming in the next few weeks, and they are also including a special new feature that those of you with the Zune HD dock are going to enjoy. That extra feature is the ability to browse the Zune Marketplace from your TV, while your Zune HD is plugged into the dock. Sure, it may not be on the top of everyone’s lists of absolutely needed features, but we’re excited about it. Microsoft is also updating the Smart DJ feature, which is like Apple’s Genius, and basically making it smarter. Now when you activate the Smart DJ, the Zune HD will pull information from the Zune Marketplace to find you related music, but will also pull information from other users as well. This means that the expansion to fin

We’re pretty confident in the fact that if you’ve paid attention to Apple over the last three years, then you probably expected Apple to be working on a successor to the iPhone 3GS . In fact, unless Apple had axed the project altogether, we imagine that many would consider that it’s a sure thing. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is not only working on one iPhone, but two. And where’s the second one going? You guessed it: Verizon. There’s been rumors regarding the existence of a Verizon Wireless-based for about two years now. Ever since the launch of the iPhone 3G, in fact, there’s been talks of Apple finding a way to break free of that exclusive contract with AT&T, and jumping ship to the Big Red network. Of course, these are unconfirmed rumors, and WSJ is citing “people briefed on the matter,” so go ahead and get that salt ready. The new iPhone for AT&T is being manufactured by Taiwanese-based Hon Hai Precision, who has manufactured all of the previous version

The ability to tag songs for a later purchase is one of the easiest, and most convenient ways to shop for songs that you may not have immediate access to. After all, the radio is still an avenue to learn about your favorite band’s latest release, or to find new music in general. Microsoft has been tagging songs since late 2008, but it’s a pretty big feature in the Zune HD’s catalogue. The HD Radio on the touch-based Zune allows you to tag a song you hear, and then purchase/download it from the Zune Marketplace at a later date. Convenient, but apparently it goes against a patent that one Edward Yavitz, a man based out of Illinois, patented back in 2002. According to Yavitz, he tried to get in touch with the Redmond-based company that created the Zune HD back in 2006. He basically said that the technology is patented and possible, and that Yavits would work with Microsoft to keep the likes of Google and Apple from doing the same thing. Of course, Apple is doing the same thing. The techn

Android’s on the rise, that’s for sure. There’s no doubt that the mobile Operating System from Google is one of the company’s shining lights. But, what happens when you have Android on your phone, but none of the features that make it, you know, Android? When the Dell Aero was showcased at CTIA 2010, there wasn’t much to show about the User Interface. And now, after seeing it in action, we know why. While there are some good things to take away from this, like the sleek form factor and the light weight, or the availability of searching the phone as well as the Internet right from the home screen. But . . . That’s about it. Sure, it has skins that you can choose from, but that’s not enough to make this device anything worthwhile. Why not? Because it doesn’t come with Gmail, Google Maps, or the Android Market! . That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, here’s an Android-based phone , that doesn’t have the Android Market available to download from. Basically, we’d like to say that this, at le

Hurry up and wait. That’s what many on the Verizon Wireless network have been forced to do, ever since the Nexus One was announced back in January. Despite the fact the phone has been listed as “Spring 2010″ since day one, that hasn’t stopped people from impatiently waiting the handset’s launch. It looks like Google is sticking to their guns, though, because there hasn’t been much in the form of release date information other than that “Spring 2010″ staring at you. If rumors are to be believed, it looks like Google is aiming to bring the Nexus One to Verizon with a few surprises in store for future customers. What surprises? We have no idea. According to JKOntheRun , the version for Verizon Wireless will be seeing some extra features that the other versions (which we imagine includes the Sprint model as well, but there might be some reason to speculate on that) don’t have. Hardware wise, that could mean better screens. Or maybe it could lose the trackball, and trade in for that optical