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HTC Touch Pro for Verizon Third time's a charm? We've reviewed the Sprint Touch Pro, AT&T's version as the HTC Fuze and now Verizon's in the game with their own Touch Pro. Like the others, the Verizon Touch Pro features a VGA flush touch screen, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and many high end trimmings: GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 and a good 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus lens. It's certainly the slickest Windows Mobile device Verizon has offered, though it's missing some of the multimedia applications found on its cross-carrier competitors. |
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Samsung Omnia (Verizon) One of our favorite Windows Mobile touch screen phones has finally made it to the US! We reviewed the import GSM Omnia i900 back in August 2008, and our two biggest complaints were the high price tag and lack of 3G. Verizon has taken care of both problems, and their version of the Omnia i910 retains just about everything we liked in the original version while adding EVDO Rev. A high speed data and a subsidized price. The Omnia features a 240 x 400 pixel touch screen with haptic feedback and an accelerometer, a fast CPU, 8 gigs of storage and a very good 5 megapixel autofocus camera. Top that off with WiFi, Bluetooth and a GPS and you've got one heck of a smartphone. |
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Samsung Gravity QWERTY messaging phones are all the rage this holiday season, and T-Mobile has jumped on the bandwagon with the Samsung Gravity t459. This side-slider feature phone looks like a regular candybar phone until you slide out the 3 row QWERTY keyboard and start messaging. The phone has EDGE for data, a good music player, IM support, an SDHC microSD card slot and Bluetooth with A2DP. It's not ripe with fancy features, but it is an affordable messaging phone for those who aren't into the Sidekick or smartphones. |
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AT&T Quickfire The AT&T Quickfire by UTStarcom takes on the SideKick and then some. The phone features a slide-out keyboard whose design is reminiscent of the SideKick and T-Mobile G1. The Quickfire is feature phone, not a smartphone, and it has 3G HSDPA, a full HTML web browser, IM, basic email support, CV streaming video, a music player and an SDHC microSD card slot. Bluetooth with A2DP and a 1.3 megapixel camera round out this messaging phone's features. |
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Sony Ericsson Xperia X1a It's finally here! Sony Ericsson's first Windows Mobile touch screen phone running their panels user interface. The pricey but feature-rich Xperia X1a is the US version sold at SonyStyle stores and it has US 3G on the AT&T bands. This quad band unlocked GSM world phone has an amazing 800 x 480 touch screen, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus lens, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and an FM radio. It's stylish metal body features a unique arc that fits the curve of one's hand. It certainly looks slick and classy enough for a Bond flick. |
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BlackBerry Storm After months of hype and teasing, the first touch screen BlackBerry smartphone is finally here. Exclusive to Verizon, the Storm features a unique moving touch screen that clicks when you press down to provide tactile feedback when typing, clicking web links, selecting icons and more. The Storm is a CDMA phone with EVDO rev. A for fast data and it has a GSM SIM card slot for overseas travel. The BlackBerry features a wonderful 480 x 360 display, an accelerometer, GPS with VZ Navigator, Bluetooth 2.0 with stereo support and a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera. |
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HTC Fuze The TouchFLO 3D invasion continues, and now we have AT&T's answer to the Sprint Touch Pro with the HTC Fuze. The Fuze has the same set of features, but the casing is classic GSM Diamond, with a gloss black faceted back and angular lines. The Fuze is a quad band GSM phone with triband 3G HSDPA for the US and overseas. It runs HTC's TouchFLO 3D UI on top of Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, and it has a wonderful VGA touch screen. Like the HTC Tilt it replaces, it has GPS, WiFi and Bluetooth with A2DP stereo too. The Fuze has a side-sliding QWERTY keyboard and support for email including push email, SMS and IM. |
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Samsung Behold A close relative to the Samsung Eternity on AT&T, the Samsung Behold is one of the coolest, yet reasonably priced T-Mobile phones. The phone features a responsive 3" touch screen with haptic feedback and an accelerometer that handles automatic screen rotation. Even better, there's a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus lens and flash for high quality phones. The Behold has 3G HSDPA on T-Mobile's US bands, a GPS with TeleNav Navigator, Bluetooth, and an HTML web browser. |
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BlackBerry Bold for AT&T RIM's top of the line traditional BlackBerry has a fantastic 480 x 320 pixel color display that looks so good it's unreal. We call the Bold 9000 for AT&T "traditional" because it keeps the standard QWERTY hardware keyboard and non-touch screen display that the upcoming BlackBerry Storm on Verizon sets aside. The Bold is the first 3G HSDPA BlackBerry, and it has WiFi, Bluetooth and a GPS too. Throw in Bluetooth stereo A2DP, a 3.5mm stereo headset jack, 2MP camera, and a great media player and an SDHC microSD card slot and you've got some serious entertainment possibilities as well. A beautiful phone, though somewhat large and particularly wide; the Bold is nonetheless a looker. |
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T-Mobile G1 The first Google Android phone is here! The T-Mobile G1, made by HTC, runs Google's open source phone operating system and it sits somewhere between a feature phone and a smartphone. It features 3G, a lovely 320 x 480 color touch screen, GPS, WiFi, thumb keyboard and a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus lens. The G1 is great for Google-addicts since it syncs with Google contacts and calendar and has push Gmail along with Google Maps. The G1 offers access to the Android Market where you can download applications (many free) to expand the phone's functionality. |
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Samsung Eternity Pretentious name aside, we really like AT&T's latest touch screen phone. The Samsung Eternity SGH-a867 features a large 240 x 400 touch screen with Samsung's cool TouchWiz UI. It has haptic feedback, a great on-screen QWERTY keyboard, Mobile TV, a full web browser, CV, a strong 3 megapixel camera, and a capable music player with 3.5mm stereo headphone jack and Bluetooth stereo. A great follow up to the popular LG Vu and a worthy competitor to the Samsung Behold on T-Mobile. |
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Samsung Epix Think of it as the Samsung BlackJack II on steroids. The Epix i907 on AT&T is a 3G QWERTY bar Windows Mobile Professional phone with a 320 x 320 pixel flush touch screen. It has a fast 624MHz CPU, yet it's got very good battery life. There's plenty of memory on board along with WiFi, a strong GPS, Bluetooth with A2DP stereo and a 2 megapixel camera. It plays CV, AT&T's streaming media service, and comes with a nice bundle of Samsung applications. One of our Fall favorites. |
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LG Incite We take a look at the new slate design touch screen Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional phone from AT&T. The Incite is something a little different from the world of HTC and Samsung touch screen PDA phones that have dominated this year. it's small and light, has a very sharp and bright 240 x 400 pixel display and a touch-customizations. We like the accelerometer and adore the proximity sensor (the iPhone isn't the only kid on the block with that feature now) that turns off the screen when the phone is against your face and turns it back on if you move the phone away. The Incite has a GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, an FM radio and a 3 megapixel camera with autofocus lens. |
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Motorola MOTOZINE ZN5 A 5 megapixel camera phone with an autofocus lens and Xenon flash for $99 with contract? Nice! T-Mobile has got the deal for those of you who are camera buffs and like the look and feel of the ROKR E8, minus haptics. This stylish and solid Moto has a very good 5MP camera with Kodak technology inside and easy uploads to Kodak's free web-based gallery. The Zine ZN5 is a quad band GSM phone with EDGE, sharp voice quality, a music player and music-oriented features like a 3.5mm headset jack and A2DP Bluetooth stereo. It's got WiFi for relatively painless image uploads, USB image transfer and output to TV. |
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HTC Touch HD HTC's counter to the iPhone sports some impressive specs including a 3.8" touch screen with a huge 480 x 800 resolution. The HD runs TouchFLO 3D, and is an elegant looking phone in terms of both hardware and software. Think of it as an HTC Touch Diamond with a super-sized display and a very impressive 5 megapixel camera tacked on the back. This is an unlocked GSM world phone that will work in the US, but 3G is overseas-only. It has the usual laundry list of high end features including Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 with stereo A2DP, a GPS, music player and video with YouTube support. |
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Samsung Rant Like the LG Rumor on Sprint, but don't want to give up EVDO? The Samsung Rant comes to the rescue with a form factor that's similar to the popular Rumor, but adds EVDO and a 4th row of keyboard keys. The Rant supports Sprint TV for some multimedia broadband goodness, and it has a microSD card slot, music player with Bluetooth stereo support. It also has a GPS that works with Sprint Navigator and a 2 megapixel camera that takes still photos and video. |
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LG Lotus And now for something completely different: the LG Lotus is a nearly square flip phone with a roomy QWERTY keyboard inside. If you thought the Verizon Blitz was novel looking, the Lotus is truly head-turning. But looks aren't everything, and thankfully the LG impressed us with its very good 2 megapixel camera, excellent Sprint TV performance, integrated document viewer, good GPS, sharp and bright widescreen display and good EVDO speeds. As you'd expect from a QWERTY phone, the Lotus handles IM, texting and personal email. |
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HTC Touch Pro for Sprint Sprint's flagship PDA phone with a keyboard is a hard act to follow. The Touch Pro, like the Diamond, has a fantastic VGA flush touch screen with TouchFLO 3D reviving tired Windows Mobile's look and feel. The Pro has it all: GPS, Sprint TV, YouTube, email, serious web browsing with Opera, WiFi, Bluetooth with A2DP and an SDHC microSD card slot. It runs on a 528MHz processor with 288 megs of RAM and 512 megs of flash memory for storage. It sports a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with flash, a 5 row slide-out QWERTY keyboard and Windows Mobile 6.1. |
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Samsung Propel The Samsung Propel SGH-a767 is one of an army of QWERTY keyboard messaging phones out for the holiday season. The Propel, like the QuickFire, Slate and Matrix have hardware keyboards but aren't smartphones, meaning lower data plan prices and they're easy to use. The Propel is a slider whose keyboard tucks away, and it has a 1.3 megapixel camera, music player with Bluetooth stereo, 3G HSDPA, CV streaming video and a GPS that works with AT&T Navigator. |
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New
Accessory, Software & Gadget Reviews |
Sony Reader PRS-700 (touch screen eBook reader)
Sony's new eBook reader addresses just about every wish on most folks' lists. It takes a great reader and adds a touch screen with great UI, simplified navigation, 5 zoom levels, side-lighting for reading in dark places and faster screen refreshes. The 700 sells alongside the non-touch screen Sony 505, and does not replace it. |
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Archos 5
The new Archos 5 is their best portable video player yet. And now it doubles as an Internet tablet with the Opera web browser, Flash 9 support and an email client. The Archos 5 has a 4.8", 800 x 480 display that's one of the best we've ever seen, and it supports most popular video formats as well as music. |
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iPod nano 4th generation
Somehow, Apple's iPod nano still keeps getting smaller while increasing capacity and adding new features. The latest nano is available in a wide range of colors and your choice of 8 or 16 gig capacity. It plays music, video and even games and there's an accelerometer too. |
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Mophie Juice Pack for iPod Touch
We reviewed the 1st generation iPhone Juice Pack a while ago, and now Mophie has a model for the iPod Touch. The Juice Pack doubles the iPod Touch's runtime and acts as a sturdy case too. The Juice Pack has intelligent charging circuitry that uses the pack's battery first, creating less wear on the iPod's internal battery. |
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Jacob's iPhone Blog
Our chief iPhone and iPod correspondent muses on various iPhone news, issues and hot topics. He also keeps us in tune with Apple's latest video and TV show iTunes releases, iPhone updates and more. |
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Fitaly 5 for Windows Mobile
Tanker Bob takes a look at the latest version of Fitaly, the alternative input system for Windows Mobile Professional phones and Pocket PCs. More than an on-screen keyboard, Fitaly has instant text, macros and a more efficient way of entering text. |
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DeLorme Earthmate LT-40 GPS
Looking for big screen navigation when your GPS-enabled phone just won't do the trick? The Earthmate LT-40 is a USB GPS that comes with maps and navigation software covering the US. The GPS and software work with Windows notebooks and UMPCs, and the software works with Palm OS and Windows Mobile handhelds and phones. |
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Sony Reader PRS-505
The holiday season is just around the corner, and the Sony Reader might just be a book-lover's perfect gift. At $299 it's one of the more affordable eBook readers on the market and it looks and feels much like a real book. The e-ink, paper-like screen is easy on the eyes for hours of reading and the Reader can hold thousands of books. |
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