Smartphones & Gear

Microsoft’s Claims of TellMe Being ‘Basically the Same as Siri’ Put to the Test

Sometimes there is no better way to demonstrate that what a company is saying is pure rubbish than by putting it to a simple test. Apple’s Siri was released to simultaneous cheers and yawns – cheers from those who use it and yawns from Microsoft and Google (and their fanboys) saying that they already have the same technology. This week Microsoft made a big deal about how they already had a ‘Siri-like’ technology and all Apple had going for it was ‘good marketing’. This is very similar to what Google has said, and is the sort of thing that plays…

News & Features

Killing webOS Cost HP HOW MUCH?!? Also, HP Nabs #2 Tablet Spot for 2011!

Two interesting pieces of contrasting TouchPad news: one about failure and the other success. From AllThingsD, we get a snip from the recent HP earnings report specific to Palm, webOS and the impact of folding up that business on their results. Here is their quote from the earnings report: Non-GAAP earnings and operating profit information excludes after-tax costs of $3.3 billion, or $1.56 per diluted share, related to the wind down of HP’s webOS device business, impairment of goodwill and purchased intangible assets, amortization of purchased intangible assets, restructuring charges and acquisition-related charges.

Reviews

Yoobao Power Bank 4400mAh External Battery Review

We recently looked at the Yoobao Power Bank battery. It’s a beast and has a huge capacity that can keep your device or devices going all day long. That Power Bank isn’t the only capacity that the company is offering, however. They also offered this smaller 4400 mA hour battery, and while it is smaller, it has the same great features. In fact, when the power in my home went out again the other day, this battery stepped in and saved the day. Let’s take a look at it.

Gear Bits

HP TouchPad Go: The 7″ Tablet I Want … But Will Never Have!

This week you are going to see 95% of the small tablet news focused on the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, but there is another 7″ tablet device that we just got some more pictures of that will never hit the market – the HP TouchPad Go.

News & Features

Republic Wireless $19 Per Month Cell Service Open for Signups

Every now and then you hear about something – the $100 laptop, the $35 tablet, the $19 smartphone plan – that seem to good to be true. And in some ways they are – there are limitations and compromises and caveats. In terms of the $19 smartphone plan, this week Republic Wireless unveiled their rumored plan – and it is both good and bad. The system is based on controlling the hardware – you need to use one of their special LG Optimus phones – and shifting much of the ‘heavy lifting’ to WiFi. So if you need the latest…

Reviews

Android Phone Review: The HTC Rhyme

I like items that have their own personality and that aren’t similar to every one else’s, but lately it seems like all of the HTC Android phones that I have been posting about have been basically the same phone — albeit with different features or screen sizes. Has it seemed that way to you? Whether it’s been the Vivid, or the Rezound or all the EVO iterations, there are traits that most HTC Android phones seem to share: they are rectangular, they have four capacitive buttons on the bottom of the screen, there is a noticeable speaker grill at the top of the screen, they…

Reviews

Bluetooth Headset Review: Sound iD SIX

A few weeks ago we brought word that Sound iD was coming out with their newest Bluetooth headset the Sound iD SIX. We have reviewed the company’s previous headsets, so I was anxious to get my hands on the SIX. Unlike those headsets, they were entirely black, the SIX has an attractive carbon fiber look to it. So it looks nice, but how does it sound? From Sound ID: The power of EarPrint™ for iPhone®, Blackberry® & Android® smart phones. Patented VoiceMenu technology is Sound ID’s answer to Voice Recognition. Unlike voice recognition, Voice Menu is discrete in public and is…

Music Diary, News & Features

Music Diary Notes: Spotify Lands on Windows Phone 7!

While the first reaction to this news might be ‘so what?’, it is worth noting because the on-demand services have been slow in arriving on Windows Phone 7, and their offerings have been generally anemic when they DID appear. I am thinking specifically of Slacker, whose initial app was both unreliable and a battery drainer, and also Rdio, who supported the platform but the offering definitely paled compared to their iOS and Android apps. That was then, this is now – Slacker fully supports background playback, Live Tiles, instant resume, and more. And Rdio’s Mango update includes background play and…

Gear Bits

Quick Impressions: Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket Speeds

As a small town guy living in the Chicago area, there are a lot times when I get frustrated with the traffic, the density, and the general inconveniences that are necessarily associated with urban living. Then again, there are times like today, when I’m happy to be living in one of the larger metropolitan areas in the country because we tend to be among the first to get new technologies, such as AT&T’s new LTE network. At the moment, AT&T has two phones able to take advantage of the LTE network: the HTC Vivid and the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket….

News & Features

Rugged PCD Wrangler Coming to U.S. Cellular

Last week my 15-year old son ran a load of laundry. That would be a great thing … except that he failed to remove his cell phone from his jeans! Another phone on the heap of teenage abuse! So when I heard that US Cellular was releasing the rugged PCD Wrangler later this month, all I could think was … THERE is a phone made for my son! Here is the description: Rugged and tough, the PCD WranglerTM works and plays as hard as you do. The compact clamshell design has been tested to withstand rain, extreme temperatures, high humidity,…

News & Features

HTC Giving All New Phone Buyers 5GB of DropBox for FREE!

Smartphone maker HTC has unveiled a plan with cloud storage company Dropbox to give 5GB of free cloud storage to new HTC Android phone owners. According to reports, the deal is tied to phones using HTC’s new ‘Sense 3.5’ UI overlay. Drop Box gives users 2GB for free, so this is an extra 150% for free – plus HTC will pre-load the DropBox app on all new phones. This appears to be yet another reaction to Apple’s iCloud service, which offers 5GB free storage to anyone using an iOS 5 device. Microsoft offers 25GB of SkyDrive storage to Windows Phone…

News & Features

Sound ID is Back with the Sound iD SIX, a Siri-Ready Bluetooth Headset

I have had the opportunity to review each generation of Sound iD’s Bluetooth headsets. The first was a small but excellent device and with each generation the devices have gotten better and better. Now the company is back with their Sound iD SIX Series headset and it looks great. Here’s what the company has to say about it: Sound ID redefines the Bluetooth experience with the new SIX. Destined to be your go-to headset, the SIX boasts a sleek look and more than one new audio trick, resulting in a true marriage of outstanding sound, true comfort and advanced technology….

News & Features

HP TouchPad – Beware the (non) Deals

Just over two months ago HP created market hysteria by killing off the TouchPad tablet and then dropping the price for quick sell-off to $99 for the 16GB and $149 for the 32GB version. In a dazzling internet-breaking weekend, a variety of sites posted and quickly sold out of the TouchPad at those prices. All of which is nice history, but it is relevant because now we are starting to see some stock of the TouchPad trickling out to a few deals sites, Amazon.com and HP itself. All of this before the anticipated final rush of TouchPad inventory made to…

Editorials

Farewell, Android

As regular readers of Gear Diary may know, I used an original Droid for almost two years. In fact, up until a few months ago, I was totally convinced my next phone would be an Android device. But Android and I had a falling out, and I picked up an iPhone 4s on Friday. Why? And is the learning curve tough? Read on for my thoughts! First, there’s the “why”. A few things dragged me away from my little robot friends. One, Android is becoming increasingly fractured. It seems as though the only way to guarantee timely updates and continued…

Editorials

Is the New Vertu Constellation Just a Gussied Up and Dumbed Down Nokia C7?

Vertu is now taking reservations for the newest Constellation, their first touch-screen model, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the Nokia C7. Okay, the uncanny resemblance is actually an intentional resemblance, as I have it on direct authority from a Vertu rep that this is the phone the Constellation is “most like”. Now obviously it is nothing new for Vertu to offer a phone with many similarities to currently available Nokias (witness the Vertu Constellation Quest), but in my ownership experience there are always a few disparities between the Nokia version and the Vertu version, and it bothers me. Let’s start with the…

News & Features

Sprint Will Have the New HTC EVO Design 4G on October 23, and So Can You!

If you have been wondering when the next member of the EVO family would make itself known, the wait is over, as the fifth member of the HTC EVO family — the EVO Design 4G — is about to be available from Sprint. The HTC EVO Design 4G builds on the wildly popular EVO line, but brings you more in a sleek new package. The first EVO family member touting World Phone capabilities, the HTC EVO Design 4G builds on many of the “must-have” features of its predecessors, including a 1.2Ghz processor and large 4” qHD touchscreen display, while sporting a…

Gear Bits

AT&T Lets Us Down Again

Ah, AT&T. So, I’m sitting here staring at my shiny new iPhone 4S. It’s unusable right now, thanks to AT&T’s lack of preparedness. They’ve had several years to figure out how to handle the spike in the load on their servers that accompanies the launch of a new iPhone model. Yet they still manage to hack up a hairball when it comes time to process orders and activate phones. Apparently, I’m not the only one, either. Several blogs are reporting AT&T customers are experiencing widespread problems with activations. When AT&T carried the iPhone exclusively, I could at least understand that…

Editorials, News & Features

Samsung Galaxy Tab Plus 7.0: Pre-Order Priced for Certain Death

Today GalaxyTabLife is reporting that J&R has the new Samsung Galaxy Tab Plus 7.0 available for pre-order in 16 and 32GB configurations. That is great news – the original Galaxy Tab had a number of fans at Gear Diary, even if overall sales were extremely lackluster (especially since Samsung dumped 1 – 2 million into the channel and only sold <10% of them). The new ‘reboot’ version ups the specs to pretty standard levels for late 2011, with 1.2GHz dual core processor, Honeycomb OS, 1GB RAM, and updated cameras. Unfortunately it looks like Samsung either missed what has happened in…

eBooks

B&N Drops Support for Blackberries

Bad news for Blackberry and B&N fans; you’ll have to pick sides soon. B&N is notifying Blackberry users that effective January 1st, they’re dropping all support for their eReader app. Of course, if you want to go through contortions, you can always sideload your books via USB. Or you could switch to Kobo or Amazon, both of whom offer fully supported ebook apps for Blackberry. According to Crackberry, this is the email B&N has sent to affected users: We are writing to inform you about important changes being made to the BN eReader software for BlackBerry. Changes to the BN…

Editorials

Windows Phone 7.5 ‘Mango’ Arrives but Will It Be Enough?

I recently wrote about my initial experiences with the HTC 7 Pro from U.S. Cellular and commented on some early concerns about Windows Phone 7.5, aka the ‘Mango’ update that some are touting as what will save Windows Phone and enable Microsoft to lead the smartphone market. Despite early concerns and more recent issues with Windows Phone Marketplace ‘spam’, most early reports indicated that Mango is what Windows Phone 7 SHOULD have been a year ago. No one really knows exactly what the mobile market will look like five years from now – and certainly any analysts in 2006 making…

Reviews

Mobile Device Accessory Review: Juice Pack Powerstation

It seems silly to refer to an external battery as “good-looking”, but mophie’s new juice pack power station is one good-looking battery. It is sleek, solid and feels great thanks to the combination of polished metal and soft touch material. And with a footprint that is a bit smaller than an iPhone, this 4000mAh battery is simple to carry around all the time. From mophie: juice pack powerstation: This powerful 4000mAh external battery can charge virtually any USB device in the world including the iPhone and iPad. With completely reengineered battery and electronics, the powerstation can charge your device at…

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