You might have read my review of the N97 – I didn’t like it. Sure, it has a touchscreen and full QWERTY keyboard, but at the end of the day they were both relatively useless – ok that’s unfair, the touchscreen was useless.
But not so with the N900. I’m at CTIA and got a hands on with the device. The OS build still wasn’t finished so a few things were a bit jittery and slow, but for the most part I’m really digging the Maemo OS. It’s much slicker and has a Web 2.0 feel to it, unlike Symbian. The UI is intuitive and for those of you that are looking for a multitasking operating system with an iPhone like skin here it is. The N900 uses a resistive touchscreen, so don’t expect multigesture controls, but you you can zoom in by drawing circles on the screen and flick through contacts, though it still isn’t quite as reactive as the highly touted iPhone. Checkout the video walk through (there’s 2 of them, ones a bit out of focus). It’s a bit long and drawn out, but it should provide you with a good sense of what the N900 has to offer.
September 1st, 2009 7:18 PM | by Christen da Costa
According to a leaked B&H Photo product page, Archos is set to refresh their Archos 5 Internet Tablet with not only a new, svelter form factor but a brand new OS.
The 5-inch touchscreen device’s OS will now be Android. It will be avaialble in a variety of capacities and include an optional $130 DVR system. While the prices have now been taken down and replaced with “tba”, Archosfans.com was diligent enough to snag a screen capture. The 16GB and 32GB flash based models will cost $293.95 and $369.95 respectively, while the hard drive based models, available in a 160GB and 500GB capacity will set you back $319.95 and $419.95 respectively.
Word is that the updated Archos 5 will hit the street on 9/15, but I can neither deny or confirm that date.
How the Samsung Mondi Wimax enabled MID will be a success is anyone’s guess, but Samsung, via Lets Talk is now selling the device for a cool $450. To refresh your memory, the Mondi is Samsung’s foray into the Wimax world and offers not only blazing fast connectivity speeds, but a 4.3-inch touchscreen, 4GB of storage, GPS, 3 megapixel camera, HDMI output, Bluetooth, DivX playback, Bluetooth, WiFi and a Windows Mobile 6.1 OS. Unfortunately, Wimax is currently only available in select markets (Baltimore, Portland, Ore., Atlanta and Las Vegas) throughout the US. If you prefer a hands on before purchase, the device is also set to go on sale August 1st at Best Buy and Clearwire stores in the aforementioned locals.
When we attended CES earlier this year we crossed paths with a product called the Movit Mini from GiiNii. At the time its launch window was pegged for summer of this year. Now the company anticipates an October 1st launch and plans to roll out a home based version, the Movit Maxx, January 1st of 2010. Check the specs below for a break down of the devices:
Movit Mini:
4.3-inch touchscreen with 480 x 272 pixels of resolution
.3MP front facing camera
Bluetooth
WiFI
Android OS with Skype preloaded
Lithium-ion battery
256MB of flash memory (presumably expandable via microSD)
Movit Maxx
7-inch touchscreen
Camera for teleconferencing
Bluetooth
Compatible with a variety of picture and video formats
Spring has sprung and with it leaked images and info about Toshiba’s upcoming handsets. The 5 new handsets are purportedly all based on the 1 GHz Snapdragon processor running Windows Mobile 6.5.
First up is the TG02 and TG03, which build upon the already announced TG01 that includes a 4.1-inch touchscreen, HSDPA, microSD card slot, accelerometer and 9.9mm thick form factor. The difference between the two yet to be officially announced handsets are an IPX4 water resistant rating with a 3.2MP camera for the TG02, and a 5MP camera with 5.1 Dolby Digital output for the TG03, but sans IPX4 rating.
The MIDs, the K01 and K02 feature a 4.1-inch and 3.5-inch touchscreen respectively, while both include a slide out QWERTY keyboard and a 3.2MP camera.
Last of the leaked handsets is the L01, which boasts the largest of the screens at 7-inches and some funky stand alone keyboard that is very reminiscent of the Touch Book.
You can expect most of these handsets to launch between Q4 2009 and Q1 2010.
Samsung, whom is making it a habit of leaking out imagery of upcoming products but providing little to no detail, finally firmed up some details about their Wimax dedicated device, the Mondi MID. Packed inside is a 4.3-inch touchscreen display, Windows Mobile 6.1, 4GB of RAM, slide out QWERTY keyboard, 3MP camera, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0 +EDR and an HDMI out (this one seems odd). Anyway, there is still no word on a price or street date, but since CTIA is in full swing I’m sure they’ll drop that info in the days to come.
I haven’t paid much attention to WiBrains MID, the M1, but now that development has been announced my interest has officially been piqued. Packed inside the device is a 4.8-inch touchscreen with a 1,024×600 resolution, some sort of rubberized keyboard, an Atom Z520 processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 16GB SSD, a round touchpad, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G connection and either a Linux or Windows XP OS.
No word on a price or US release, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up.
Wooops. Samsung slipped up today and showed off what is probably the first Wimax dedicated MID, the SWD-M100 Mondi. Resembling the Nokia N810, the Mondi appears to have both a touchscreen and slide out keyboard – that should satisfy both ends of the spectrum – and a front facing camera for late night nefarious video chats. Pontification appoints the Mondi to Clear’s Wimax network first, but no one really knows.
In the last 4 months Peek ran about 3 or 4 different promotions to help move their email only device supported by the T-Mobile’s network. And now we know why: today they announced the Peek Pronto. It’s an updated version of the original Peek and like its name sake suggests its speedier to the gate in a handful (pun intended) of ways. Here’s how:
50% improvement in speed
works with Microsoft Exchange
works with up to 5 accounts (original Peek worked with just 2)
unlimited email and texting
push email
ability to search the for emails
view PDF, DOCs and Pics
Unlike the original Peek, the Pronto is only available in one color (gray) and will cost slightly more at $80 a pop – service is still $20/month, though. Right now you can get grab one exclusively from Amazon, or wait until April when the email/text device will go on sale on their website or Radio Shack.
Remember the Mintpad? The tiny 2.46-inch Korean built device is currently under going the necessary modifications for a US release. Date and price have yet to be set, but Pocketables contacted the company and got their hands on the English manual. My gut tells me the device will never be a smash success here in the US or UK, but those who aren’t iPod Touch or smartphone handset converts might enjoy its feature set.
Memo – one of the core functions, vector-based memo engine, advanced technology that mimics the “same feeling of writing on paper,” auto-save, detailed drawings, handwriting recognition
Schedule – calendar, appointments, to do list
Name Card – individual contact cards using photos taken with built-in camera
Camera – still images (JPG) and video recording (AVI)
Life – community feature, daily contests for mintpad users to enter
Blog – community feature, create your own and view others’ “mint blogs”
Book Store – community feature, create and share content published as “books”
Chatting – real-time memo exchange, chatrooms, WiFi and ad hoc connections
Music – standard music functions (APE, FLAC, MP3, OGG, WAV, WMA)
Video – Internet streaming TV, standard video functions (DiVX, MPEG-4, WMV, XviD)
Pictures – photo album, slideshow, up to 2048 x 2048 resolution
Recording – voice recording (WMA)
Internet – ” high-speed full browsing with Flash support” (according to product brochure)
