Phones

HTC S743 Windows Mobile Standard phone for the U.S.

HTC will be bringing the S743 unlocked Windows Mobile Standard smart phone to the US which is basically the HTC S740 with the bands for US 3G on AT&T. GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz 850/1900 MHz (AT&T) 3.6 HSDPA. We have already reviewed the European version which you can find here. To refresh your memory this device has a QVGA display, a slide out QWERTY keyboard, 3MPX auto focus camera and wifi. You can read our review of the HTC S740 here.

via infosyncworld

SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone to be shown at Macworld

Sling Media will be demonstrating a version of SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone being developed for the iTunes store at this year’s Macworld. Sling Media will deliver a version of SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone to Apple for certification in Q1.  “SlingPlayer Mobile is ideally suited for the iPhone’s large touch screen display and I know iPhone users are eagerly anticipating the application’s availability,” said Blake Krikorian, co-founder and CEO of Sling Media.

Verizon merges with Alltel now America’s largest network

Verizon (Vodafone owns 45% of Verizon Wireless) will complete its $28.1 billion takeover of Alltel on January 9. This will add more than Alltel’s 13 million customers to Verizon’s 66 million to create the largest mobile network in the US. Both Verizon and Alltel use Qualcomm’s CDMA technology which will hopefully avoid the problems that Sprint encountered when it merged with Nextel in 2005. That merger began the rapid decline of Sprint when it failed to successfully integrate Sprint’s CDMA network and Nextel’s IDEN network.

 Source InformationWeek

Letter from Apple CEO Steve Jobs

We have all heard the rumours recently surrounding why Steve Jobs will not be attending this years Macworld, well the man  himself has issued a letter explaining his decision and we have it for you here after the break in full. Also there is a statement from Apples board. Apparently Steve has a hormone imbalance which is the cause of his weight loss. We wish him a speedy recovery. All the details after the break.

David Pogue discusses the potential of mobile devices

In America there are 3 or 4 really influential tech journalists whose opinions really matter in mainstream newspapers. People like Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher of The Wall Street Journal, Ed Baig of USA Today, and my personal favorite David Pogue of The New York Times. Pogue’s short videos which air on CNBC are also available as a podcast and are something I look forward to every week. Pogue gave a speech recently where he discusses the mobile trends he expects to see develop in 2009. It is a really entertaining and informative discussion (including a couple of funny songs). The main thrust of his talk centers on how mobile services will become more and more important in the coming year. More after the break, including the video.

iPhone Elite QWERTY keyboard accessory

The iPhone just got a whole lot more tempting for me this morning. The idea of a QWERTY keyboard add-on is hardly new, however, this one really looks tempting. The idea of the keyboard also becoming a rather resilient cover for the screen will attract a great many people. Click on for more info.

Microfi Nitrogen MP3 player for Windows Mobile

Its long been a big moan of mine that the media capabilities of Windows Mobile devices are inferior to the iPhone and it looks like I am not alone in thinking this as the guys over at XDA have decided to make their own MP3 player. Microfi Nitrogen is a native Windows Mobile application (unmanaged code) that allows you to play MP3 songs stored on your Pocket PC device. It features a file browser, full skin support, “Shuffle” and “Repeat” modes, a 10-band equalizer with preset support, a built-in sleep mode and a command to blank screen to prevent energy waste while playing music. More details with downloads after the break.

CookingCapsules review for G1

CookingCapsules is a nice application that allows G1 users to cook a recipe step-by-step quite easily.  It is preloaded with a few recipes that you can choose from (at the moment, there are 4 Indian an d 4 French inspired recipes), like the “Chocolate Pots de Creme,” “Kheer,” and some others, too.  It tells you how long the video is and how long it will take to prepare the dish.  Each recipe has a video of how to prepare it, a shopping list of items required to make it, and text instructions, too.  I personally think the application can be handy to have but needs some improvement. Read about my experience with CookingCapsules after the break.

Free DivX Player From DivX

Just when we thought Windows Mobile is losing out on entertainment and games because developers are swarming to other platforms either because of the software/hardware support for those titles or because of the newness of some of these other platforms, DivX is bringing its DivX Player to Windows Mobile, according to CoolSmartPhone.
Users can download the new Player from DivX. Now, you don’t have to get an official DivX Certified phone to run the player.

Shapewriter 2.0 comes to the iPhone

ShapeWriter 2.0 is an awesome new input method for touch screen devices. It works by drawing a line from letter to letter to spell out a word. In theory it should be a much faster way to input text. There is a little bit of a learning curve, but it feels a lot more natural than the on-screen keyboard in windows mobile, and I think out will be even better than the iPhone’s soft keyboard with a little refinement.