Archive for July, 2008

Larry Magid of CBS decided to compare his gadget bills to those of his parents, and ended up wishing he didn’t. The network’s tech guru found, to what we would have assumed was no one’s surprise, we spend a lot more on gadgets than the previous generations. How much more? Well check out the quick list below:

Cost of phone in 1970 - $8 a month plus long distance charges.
Cost of phone now - $90 a month, $50 for cell phone, $40 for land line (more if you also have a Skype bill).

Cost of TV in 1970 - Free. Buy the TV, buy an antenna and you were good to go.
Cost of TV now - $120+ for premium package on cable or satellite.

Cost of Internet in 1970 - Inter-what?
Cost of Internet now - $50 seems to be an average monthly fee for fast DSL or cable.

And that’s just scratching the surface. There are also subscription based computer services to contend with, such as Norton or McAfee anti-virus packages, and online services like Yahoo! Mail that charge you monthly fees to remove advertisements.

In the end, according to Magid’s math we spend around $6,500 between electricity and subscription fees on our gadgets and electronics, or more than half of the median family income in 1970. [Source: CBS News]

Upon first glance, the new wearable cell phone concept from designer Massimo Marrazzo, pictured above, is a bit unnerving. The image of the woman doing the hand-phone move evokes painful memories of the last person we ever saw do that.

We never called them.

This concept consists of a central processor, worn on the back of the hand, and wires that extend from that processor to the tip of the thumb and pinky for optimum hand-phoning ability. Interesting, yes, but does anyone even want to hand-phone? That is the real question. Our best guess is no.

If this concept ever went into production, technophiles might be interested in owning one just for the looks they would surely receive. The problem is, most people wouldn’t be staring out of envy. They would be seeing some poor schmuck mouthing “call me” and making that silly hand-phone gesture across a crowded room. [Source: Textually.org]

Sorry, T-Mobile yanks, this one actually goes out to your German cousins; we still don’t have a Bold commitment stateside from anyone other than AT&T. It’s cool, you’ve got the WiFi Curve, remember? But yeah, back to T-Mobile Germany for a second — those guys have become the first anywhere to slap a price tag on RIM’s latest and greatest, charging €219.95 (about $348) on the carrier’s Max S plan and going down from there if you want a heftier voice / data package. T-Mob claims that interested parties will see the Bold pop up in July, which should give you enough time to pick out a nice, rugged case.

[Via Mobile Bulgaria]

If you’ve had your eye on Samsung’s forthcoming Omnia, you’ve known good and well it was coming to Europe sometime this month. Thankfully, Sammy has removed the mystery by announcing that Italy will get first dibs when it launches in said country on July 22nd. We aren’t told who will be second, third or last, but most major European locales should have it before September dawns. Obviously, prices will vary depending on operator and contract terms, but the 8GB edition (along with an Xbox 360 Arcade, as part of some random promotion) will reportedly be €499 ($789) without subsidy. Glean from that what you will.

[Via phoneArena]

The saga of the Meizu M8 is one of the more entertaining dramas in the phone biz these days, owing partly to the endless delays and tweaks, granted — but owing much more to the truly masterful ripping of the iPhone’s industrial design. Unfortunately, there’s been very little actual bite to follow up the bark coming out of the Meizu camp, and it looks like we might get a real taste of this thing for the first time as soon as next month. A post on Meizu’s website, seemingly from none other than CEO J. Wong himself, claims that a first cut of the M8 will arrive next month — along with plenty more pictures and details — but it’ll be a somewhat neutered rendition that features just 128MB of RAM and zero flash. October will bring the real deal, a 256MB baddie that rocks 8GB of storage for 2180 yuan, which works out to about $320. Meanwhile, pictures have surfaced of the latest prototype floating around Meizu’s labs, looking both as slick and as litigation-prone as ever. Bring these stateside, Mr. Wong, and we’ll be the very first to sign up — just don’t be surprised if Apple is right behind us.

[Via Electronista]

Read - August for 128MB model, October for 256MB / 8GB?
Read - Prototype M8 in the wild

Man, waiting in line for the iPhone 3G can be a royal pain, right? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just circumvent the whole boring, sheep-like process and have one delivered to your doorstep? Well thanks to Alibaba.com and the weird and wacky copyright laws of China, now you can! According to the wholesale goods supply site, you can just order up the “original” Apple device direct from a company called Union Camera — 1000 units per shipment, please — and have them sent to whatever poorly lit dock, abandoned warehouse, or suburban safe-house you desire. The best part? They’re network unlocked. You know, something seems wrong about this, but we just can’t put our finger on it…

[Via PMP Today]

Just in case you weren’t already watching enough YouTube at work and on your home computer, on your iPhone, Ocean, etc., or on your Apple TV, now TiVo’s getting in on the action as well. Originally announced earlier this year, TiVo users can finally expect the update to pop over your TiVo’s regularly scheduled updates over the next couple of weeks. Oh, and our man Dave Zatz shot some video of the new feature and put it up on (where else?) YouTube — check it out after the break.

We’re beginning to wonder if Panny’s long-standing CF-52 and CF-74 will ever be replaced, but so long as folks keep biting, we suppose there’s nothing wrong with perpetual makeovers. As with nearly every other laptop manufacturer, Panasonic has also decided it prudent to freshen up the aforesaid pair of Toughbooks with larger hard drives, 802.11n WiFi, expanded graphics capabilities and Intel’s Centrino 2 platform. Aside from that, you can still expect the same rugged exterior, shock-mounted HDD and spill-resistant keyboard, but you’ll pay dearly for those safeguards. Both the 15.4-inch CF-52 and 13.3-inch CF-74 will be available next month starting at $1,949 and $3,199, respectively.