Filed under: Cellphones
Remember when Vodafone told us to hold our horses a bit on the pricing details when the BlackBerry Storm was made official this month? Believe it or not, the holding period is over, and now we’re staring some actual price tags in the face. Reportedly, Voda will make the touchscreen BlackBerry available with four different pricing plans, so we’ll get right to it. The Perfect Choice Access 100 plan will get you a Storm for €109.99 ($141), while the per-month rate (€49.99; $64) will include 100 minutes (yes, seriously), 100 texts (still for real here, people), 1GB of BlackBerry e-mail, mobile TV and ten music downloads. The Perfect Choice Access 200 / 400 / 600 plans bump up the minutes and texts just as you’d expect for €64.99 / €84.99 / €99.99 per month while netting you the phone for €64.99 / €69.99 / €49.99, respectively. For the full spill, head on down to the read link — meanwhile, here in America, we all sit waiting for Verizon to follow suit…
[Via CrackBerry]
Vodafone’s BlackBerry Storm pricing plans eke out originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment
Peeks and glimpses are alright, but we all know those are just the crumbs leading up to the feast. CNET‘s UK branch was able to grab hold of what appears to be a retail Pioneer KRL-32V KURO LCD, and of course, they paused every few seconds during the presumably mayhem-filled unboxing process in order to snap a few photos and let us all in on the fun. Early impressions were overly positive, with the lucky unboxers noting that Freeview picture quality was “impressive,” and that this here set proves that Pioneer definitely “has something to bring to the LCD party.” Hit the read link to get yourself all kinds of jealous on the inside.
[Thanks, John]
Pioneer’s 32-inch KRL-32V KURO LCD HDTV gets unboxed originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Laptops, Peripherals
Ruh roh. We’re really, really hoping this isn’t just the first of another long string of laptop battery recalls, but the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with a slew of other outfits, has just announced a voluntary recall of around 35,000 Sony laptop batteries. As you’d expect, the Li-ions in question “can overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to consumers,” and there have already been 19 reports of overheating including 17 reports of flames / fire and two reports of consumers getting mildly burnt. For the full list (and it’s pretty long) of affected laptop models from HP / HP Compaq, Toshiba and Dell, be sure to give the read link some serious attention. Oh, and stop using that battery pronto if yours is one of the afflicted.
Recalled: 35,000 volatile Sony batteries in Dell / HP / Toshiba laptops originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Cellphones
Looks like Bang and Olufsen might have a harder time getting out of the cellphone game than it thought — especially now that Kanye’s throwing cash at it. Yep, Yeezy just picked up the year-old Serenata in Singapore, and he’s thoughtfully posted up some unboxing pics for us. We thought the Samsung-built handset was a hot little number when we played with it back in January at CES, but we’ve moved on since then — it’s a triband dumbphone, after all. We’ve got some hotter gear to show you, ‘Ye — call anytime.
[Thanks, Philip]
Kanye West fails to single-handedly save B&O’s handset biz originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Laptops
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. A special note this week; this post marks the fourth year of Switched On columns for Engadget, and we’d like to give a big thanks to Ross for all his hard work and intriguing ideas. We’re looking forward to the next four! -ed.
Palm’s abandoned Foleo had a split personality. It was positioned as a smartphone companion, but it was also a new platform. Consumers expected to pay less for the former and saw no need for the latter. But the idea of a small, inexpensive notebook computer certainly struck a chord and now many major PC manufacturers sell Linux and Windows-based “netbooks” that generally start at $499 or less. They are even starting to migrate toward the 10-inch screens that Foleo champion Jeff Hawkins promoted as ideal for accommodating a full-sized keyboard. However, ceci n’est pas une Foleo. While the big boys have pursued one part of the Foleo’s promise, Celio Corp. is taking on the other part.
The REDFLY “smartphone terminal” (a description that leaves no doubt off the bat that this is currently an IT-focused product) looks like a small notebook PC, but it does not have any processing capabilities of its own.Instead, it uses the operating system and wireless connectivity of a growing list of supported Windows Mobile smartphones. Wrapped in a smooth rubbery plum coating, its industrial styling includes an 8.3-inch screen that runs at a resolution of 800 x 400. Its slightly cramped keyboard is on par with those of 9-inch netbooks and certainly more comfortable than that on the Eee 701. And its short but very wide trackpad tops has two large buttons where you’d expect them to be.
After downloading a video driver for a supported Windows Mobile smartphone, the REDFLY must initially connect to a Windows Mobile smartphone via a USB cable; after that, you can use USB or Blueooth for a wireless connection with the phone. Almost any application that can be used on the phone will accept input from the REDFLY keyboard and trackpad and display on its screen. But not all applications are, of course, created equal.
Continue reading Switched On: REDFLY seeks your green before Halloween
Switched On: REDFLY seeks your green before Halloween originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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