News

RIM Sues Samsung Over BlackJack

Samsung, manufacturer of the Blackjack Smartphone device have been given notice that Research in Motion (RIM), manufacturer of the BlackBerry, intend to sue them over the use of the name Blackjack.

More specifically, RIM is unhappy with the name of Samsung’s phone, which it says violates the BlackBerry trademark

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, also cites the name of Samsung’s Black Carbon phone as a trademark infringer.

“Samsung is misleading the public into falsely believing that Samsung’s goods and services are connected with RIM’s business,” the filing states.

I have to say, I really don’t feel misled. But just to help clear things up: Blackberry = RIM, Blackjack = Samsung. 😛

Warning to pie manufacturers: Be careful how you brand your Apple and Blackberry pies – you wouldn’t want anyone to think that your pies were in anyway connected with RIM’s PDA devices would you!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, Blackjack, Blackberry, RIM, Samsung]

1,000Gb on a Single Disk!

Researchers at the University of Central Florida have developed a new technology that will allow users to record and store massive amounts of data, thousands of Gigabytes, of data on a single disk or perhaps a small cube using Belfield’s Two-Photon 3-D Optical Data Storage system.

“For a while, the community has been able to record data in photochromic materials in several layers,” Belfield said. “The problem was that no one could figure out how to read out the data without destroying it. But we cracked it.”

Imagine being able to store 500 movies or an entire library of data on a single disk!

The process involves shooting two different wavelengths of light onto the recording surface. The use of two lasers creates a very specific image that is sharper than what current techniques can render. Depending on the colour (wavelength) of the light, information is written onto a disk. The information is highly compacted, so the disk isn’t much thicker. It’s like a typical DVD.

Read the full news release HERE.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, competition, 12 days of christmas, Prizes, Christmas, Tracy & Matt]

Channel 4 TV on Lobster

More news from the front.

‘Our man on the inside’ at the Microsoft EVO launch event has just received confirmation that, as expected, but after a fair delay, Channel 4 shortcuts will now be replaced by the full Channel 4 TV service on BT Movio for Lobster TV.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Microsoft, 12 days of christmas, Lobster 700, One Note, Tracy & Matt]

Microsoft One Note Mobile in 2007

Our ‘man on the inside’ at the Microsoft EVO launch event (Exchange 2007, Vista and Office 2007) has just seen a great demo of Microsoft’s One Note mobile.

One Note Mobile comes complete with Microsoft Office 2007!

Office OneNote 2007 is a digital notebook that provides people one place to gather their notes and information, powerful search to find what they are looking for quickly, and easy-to-use shared notebooks so that they can manage information overload and work together more effectively.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, competition, 12 days of christmas, Prizes, Christmas, Tracy & Matt]

Last few days of Eten Glofiish X500 offer

We are down to the last few days of our Eten Glofiish X500 offer!

To take advantage of this brilliant offer all you have to do is type TM3PNOV06 into the voucher box on the order form once you have selected to buy the X500 and £30 will be deducted at the checkout stage. To visit the Eten X500 on the Clove site click here.

This really is a good offer and we are pretty sure that this is the cheapest X500 in the UK and we are offering you £30 off to boot!!

This offer is for our readers only and is valid until the end of November 2006.

Edit: Check out the latest X500 offen in this post.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Eten, Glofiish, Eten Glofiish X500, Tracy & Matt]

Astraware Gift Certificates

The Holiday Season is upon us and if you’re searching for the perfect gift for your favorite Palm OS(R) or Windows Mobile(R) user, why not get them an Astraware Gift Certificate? It’s the ideal way to buy games for your friends and relations without having to know device IDs, and also allows you to give Astraware games to people who don’t have a credit card.

Buying a Gift Certificate is very simple – you only need the recipient’s name and email address. Astraware even offers a choice of gifting options: either buy and print the Gift Certificate so you can hand it to the person directly; or buy the Certificate and send it via email – ideal for those last minute gifts or long distance friends and relations. Astraware Gift Certificates are available in a range of values from $15 up to $100. For more information, visit the Astraware website.

What’s more, if you’re a Club Astraware member, you can earn points from any Gift Certificates you buy, and those points can be used to treat yourself!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, Astraware, M3100, gift certificates]

Eten VGA Device next year

As I mentioned in my previous post, I just got back from the Eten press conference.

One subject that was raised was the inclusion of VGA screens on their devices. According to Teresa Chou, Eten’s sales and marketing director, Eten will be releasing a Windows Mobile PocketPC device with a VGA screen sometime next year. What’s more, the device will be 3G and be the same size as existing Glofiish devices – the VGA display will be a 2.8″ unit.

A 2.8″ VGA unit will be sweet for sure!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, E-TEN, glofiish, E-TEN Glofiish, Tracy & Matt]

HTC Hermes SIM unlock FREE!

A while ago I told you about the SIM Unlocking service from IMEI-Check. Now it would appear that the unclock service is being provided free on this site: pof.eslack.org/hermes-unlocker/

It can be used in all HTC Hermes devices, this includes the following: HTC TyTN / O2 XDA trion / T-Mobile MDA Vario II / Vodafone 1605 VPA Compact III / Orange SPV M3100 / Dopod CHT 9000 / Dopod 838 Pro / hTc Z / Qtek 9600 / iMate JasJam / Cingular 8525 / Swissom XPA v1605 / SoftBank X01HT / UTStarcom 6800 / Vodafone PDA 1605

I haven’t tried it out yet, it’s worth a try but as with all these things it’s at your own risk!

Thanks to our friend Matt for the heads up!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, Orange, M3100, HTC Hermes, HTC TyTN, SPV, Orange SPV M3100]

Sony: ‘No plans for Mylo in Europe’

A few weeks ago we were lucky enough to play with a Sony Mylo and we were quite impressed with it.

Since getting back to the UK we decided to try and get one on loan from Sony so that we could write a full review. Unfortunately we have been told by sources at Sony that there are ‘No plans to launch the Mylo in Europe’ and sales will be ‘Limited to the US market only’.

So it would seem that if you want one of these toys you’ll have to get an import! Bit of a shame really as they seem quite a cool gizmo!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Sony, Mylo, Sony Mylo]

Google buys YouTube for £900 million!

This story is going to be everywhere and will go on and on, however it’s too big not to post!

Google is buying video-sharing website YouTube for $1.65bn (£883m) in shares after a weekend of speculation that a deal was in the offing.
The two companies will continue to operate independently, Google said as it announced the news on Monday.

YouTube, launched in February 2005, has grown quickly into one of the most popular websites on the internet.

It has 100 million videos viewed every day and an estimated 72 million individual visitors each month.

Matt

Source: BBC News

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, google, youtube, C100, HTC Oxygen]