Entries from March 2009
Don’t fancy one of those expensive iPhone service plans? Fear not, UAE-dwelling Apple fans, as Etisalat has just announced that the world’s most strokable mobile will now be available for Wasel customers (pre-paid, to you). Sure, it ain’t cheap at Dhs3,121 for 8GB or Dhs3,570 for 16GB, but ‘Slat will subsidize that with a free SIM and 250MB of free data a month for six months, a saving they reckon will save you Dhs2,000. That adds up to Dhs1,121 to get started on the multi-touch wonder… an odd figure, but who’s complaining?
Categories: mobiles
Tagged: 16GB, 8GB, apple, etisalat, Free, iphone, pre-paid, sim, subsidized, Wasel
Jumping aboard the good ship portable, LG has just launched the HS102. Weighing in at just 780g, the pint-sized projector is only 50mm thick. Beneath its trim figure lies the latest in DLP technology, with an LED lightsource providing over 30,000 hours of lamp life. LG claim it projects screens up to 80in, but you should probably stick to between 30-40in for the sake of clarity. The whole thing will cost you around the US$800 mark. It’s hardly as pocketable as Optoma’s Pico, but if you’re after quality on-the-go, it’s well worth a look.
Categories: gadgets · video
Tagged: DLP, HS102, LED Lamp, LG, portable projector
This from Slashdot:
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes “According to a report I just read in Mashable, Pirate Bay is coming to Facebook. Writer Ben Parr says that The Pirate Bay site now includes links under torrents to ‘Share on Facebook.’ Once posted to a profile, the Facebook member’s friends can click the link on Facebook to begin the download right away, provided he or she already has a torrenting client installed. I just hope people do not use this feature to download copyrighted materials which are not authorized to be downloaded, or at least not materials copyrighted to litigation-happy RIAA Big 4 record labels. No doubt, if their song files were downloaded through this method, the record companies would sit back for awhile, derive profit from the promotional excitement generated for their dying industry, and then — armed with Facebook’s data — sue the pants off all the hapless Facebook users who fell for it.”
Wow… he makes it sound like innocent social networking bunnies are being raped by the big, bad, torrent-streaming wolf. Wonder what’s really at play here. Trap or trip?
Categories: online
Tagged: Facebook, Slashdot, The Pirate Bay
Skype is getting jiggy with the iPhone (tomorrow, reportedly) and BlackBerry (in May). Sadly, it looks like the iPhone VoIP software won’t work over 3G and BlackBerrys are still slugging along on EDGE. Surely, the hacking community will be all over this, though. If you could talk for ‘free’ over 3G, would you? Etisalat’s not very cheap iPhone could yet become the sale of the century.
UPDATE: According to Engadget, you can call out over 3G after all.
Categories: mobiles
Tagged: blackberry, etisalat, iphone, Skype
More akin to building business-friendly laptops, Lenovo has followed Acer and Asus down smartphone street. But from the looks of this sleek slider, you wouldn’t think it was brand new to the mobile game. The X1 has a 3.2in WQVGA touchscreen, GPS and SD support. But unlike Asus’s P range and the new Tempo series from Acer, it won’t come running a skinned version of WinMo 6.1, but what looks Symbian S60. It’ll be hitting Chinese shores soonish, so keep your eyes peeled for grey market imports.
[via Gayakuman]
Categories: mobiles
Tagged: 3.2in WQVGA, Acer Tempo, Asus P, GPS, Lenovo X1, SD card, slider, Symbian OS, Touchscreen, Triband
For those of you who can’t remember what proper film looks like, it sat in little plastic tubes, came in 35mm-wide strips and went into cameras like this one. Well not this one exactly, as this Superheadz Golden Half cam has a modern twist up its retro sleeves. It allows you to take your 3×5 shots and turn them into two seperate 3×2.5-inch frames. That means instead of the regular 36 exposures per roll, you get 72 instead. The pics will only be small, but that doesn’t stop you from converting them to digital and working a little Photoshop magic, does it? The classic cam also has two shutter speeds and hot shoe. That’s not bad for the recommended US$55.
[via Gayakuman]
Categories: cameras
Tagged: 35mm, analogue, camera, digital, exposure, hot shoe, photography, Photoshop, shutter speeds, Superheadz Golden Half
We thought the first quality mobile internet device (MID) would come from the likes of Nvidia, but it seems Samsung has beaten them all to the punch. The Mondi claims to be the first handheld WiMAX device stateside, with full QWERTY, D-pad and rather large-looking screen. The juicy details haven’t surfaced yet (the information came from a Samsung RSS feed) but here’s hoping it’ll come touting Android. More info as and when it gets released.
[via CrunchGear]
Categories: gadgets · mobiles
Tagged: android, MID, Mobile Internet Device, Mondi, Nvidea, samsung, SWD-M100, WiMAX
Apple has announced the dates of its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. This is the event at which the iPhone 3G was announced last year, and the smart money says that if there’s a new J-phone in the offing, it’ll be announced between June 8 to 12 at the event. After some pretty mediocre offerings so far this year, we think it could be just the ticket to get summer off to a good start.
Categories: mobiles
Tagged: apple, events, iphone, iPhone 3G, June, launch, San Francisco, Worldwide Developers Conference, WWDC
TV has been free since anyone can remember. Now free music (paid for by advertising) is being offered by the likes of Spotify. Given that ads are likely to be well-targeted (and therefore relatively useful or interesting), we like the look of this future. But what else could be free in years to come? We wouldn’t shrug at free flights if we had to listen to advertising for six hours in-flight. Ideas?
Categories: audio · online
Tagged: advertising, free flights, free music, Spotify
Paddy Smith
Mike Priest
Thomas Shambler
Ben Thomas
