News Archive for 08/05/26

Choose an article from the archive listing on this page or refine your selection using the controls in the gray box below.

Orange offering deal on 3G iPhone trade-up?

05/26, 10:40pm

Orange iPhone Trade-Up

Orange is giving its French iPhone customers incentives to trade up to the new model, according to news from multiple readers of PCInpact. The carrier is described as calling its customers giving them an offer that would encourage them to trade up to the iPhone. One offer would see users trade in their 2G models for the next-generation version as well as paying 50 Euros; a second would let them keep the older model but buy the new one with a "generous" subsidy from the carrier, according to reports.

First Look: Logitech Pure-Fi Mobile Speakers

05/26, 9:45pm

Pure-Fi Mobile Speakers

Most people like the idea of taking their music with them wherever they go. While it’s easy to listen to music through headphones or ear buds, you might want to share your favorite tunes with others. Since it’s not always practical (or desirable) to share a pair of headphones with someone else, Logitech offers its Pure-Fi Mobile speakers, which can connect to any Bluetooth-enabled phone, MP3 player, or personal computer with a USB port.

RIM can't give India access to BlackBerry messages

05/26, 5:45pm

RIM's Indian market woes

The latest update in the Indian government's ban of the BlackBerry cellular phone has the Canadian maker of the device, Research In Motion, telling the government it is not able to provide it with encrypted messages sent by its enterprise customers. RIM already had a 15-day ultimatum imposed on it by the government, which is demanding access to all wireless communications for security reasons.

Iogear intros ultra-portable emergency charger

05/26, 3:50pm

Iogear emergency charger

On Thursday, Iogear introduced the GearJuice Rescue Charger to supplement its GearJuice mobile pocket power portable battery and JuiceMeter portable battery tester. The company promises an extra 15 minutes of energy to mobile devices such as MP3 players or phones that use a mini USB connection for charging.

Hop-On unveils ultra-low cost handset

05/26, 12:30pm

Hop-On intros $10 handset

On Friday, Hop-On released a disposable cell phone called the HOP1800. At $10, the HOP1800 is five times less expensive than the admittedly higher-spec Motorola MOTOFONE F3, and comes with no form of display whatsoever. In exchange, it offers 16 polyphonic MIDI ringtones, a vibration feature and locks for both the keypad and SIM card. The dual-band 850/1900MHz GSM handset is aimed at travelers and can be recycled, with the company offering a $5 mail-in rebate when the handset is returned.

K-Touch shows 8MP phone with Canon image chip

05/26, 11:20am

K-Touch shows 8MP phone

Canon is finally getting into the mobile phone business, as the new K-Touch C280 spotted at by AVING at Chitec 2008 on Monday runs the photo company's DIGIC III imaging processor. The 8-megapixel camera also uses a Samsung CMOS sensor, and a 3x optical zoom thanks to its motorized lens. While these components attribute to the handset's bloated size, the phone features dedicated camera controls, placed where they would be on an actual point-and-shoot digital camera.

New multi-track format may supplant MP3

05/26, 10:50am

Music 2.0 Audio Format

A new audio format in the works could provide much more flexibility for both listening and editing to music, according to its creators. Developed by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute and put into public use as Music 2.0 by Audizen, the MT9 standard would provide six audio channels for different instruments, similar to multi-track recording at a studio. Listeners could separately adjust the volume for each track to either balance out audio quality or alter the track for specific purposes: karaoke singers could mute vocals to use their own, while remix artists could selectively drop out certain parts of the track without needing access to the master recordings.

Willcom 03 phone combines virtual UI, streaming TV

05/26, 10:35am

Willcom 03 slider phone

Willcom, Sanyo and Microsoft co-developed the Willcom 03 slider phone, also known as the WS020SH. The top panel features virtual navigation keys, similar in execution to those on the Samsung Soul, that appear on a 3-inch touch-sensitive LCD, and add a number pad when needed. Sliding the top panel open reveals a full QWERTY keyboard. One-segment streaming digital TV is displayed on the 480x800 resolution screen thanks to the handset's Flash Lite 3.0 software.

AT&T quietly pro-rates cancelation fees

05/26, 9:55am

ATT Quietly Pro-rates ETFs

AT&T has without fanfare begun pro-rating its early termination fees for contracts, Unwired View notes. The plan reduces the penalty for canceling service from its normal $175 by $5 increments for each month of active service. Subscribers ending service the month before their contracts expire will each pay $60 to back out; a more realistic scenario where a user withdraws halfway through a two-year agreement will cost $115.

NVIDIA working on Tegra mobile CPU line

05/26, 9:05am

NVIDIA Tegra Leak

NVIDIA is about to unveil a whole line of mobile processors dedicated to handhelds, says a new leak from the Inquirer. The APX 2500 is now put under the Tegra brand of chips and will be marketed as an application processor for portable media players and smartphones. As suggested early on, the chip will be capable of decoding and encoding 720p video in real-time, including through optional HDMI output, and supports both the newer OpenGL ES 2.0 standard for mobile 3D as well as effects that have normally been too demanding for mobile chips, including anti-aliasing for cleaner graphics.

Atom dual-core confirmed, uses just 8W?

05/26, 8:25am

Atom Dual Core Leak

Intel's rumored Atom 300 dual-core chip is authentic and will quickly appear soon, Fudzilla claims in a new but seemingly authentic leak. While less ambitions than the 1.87GHz chip originally suggested in one version of Intel's roadmap, the 1.6GHz Atom 330 processor should otherwise represent twice the theoretical performance with each physical core adding Hyperthreading support, effectively supporting as many as four distinct program threads under ideal circumstances. The Level 2 cache is also doubled to 1MB.

Canon EOS-5D Mk II confirmed in book leak?

05/26, 7:40am

Canon 5D Mk II in Leak

Canon's widely rumored EOS-5D Mark II may have been confirmed through an Amazon book listing this weekend. An entry for a Wiley field guide explicitly mentions the unreleased camera and also mentions a projected November 10th release date for the text, although the schedule is likely tentative and isn't necessarily timed with the launch of the camera itself.