Eclectic Electronics

AT&T going strong, reels in 1.6 million iPhone activations for 1Q 2009

Posted: 22 Apr 2009 04:00 PM PDT

AT&T Corporate Center

This is probably why AT&T wants to extend iPhone exclusivity. Reports indicate that AT&T made a $3.1 billion from $30.6 billion in revenues.

AT&T is definitely moving on the fast track with its wireless division because of exclusivity to the Apple iPhone. The company is said to have activated 1.6 million iPhones during the 1st quarter of 2009 alone. U-verse, a digital TV, high-speed internet and phone service, is also showing promising growth. U-verse subscribers increased by 284,000 compared to the same quarter last year.

Looks like AT&T is one of the few companies surviving the economic turmoil.

[via GigaOM and Business Insider]

Elemental Designs A2-300 getting a price increase on May 15, 2009

Posted: 22 Apr 2009 03:00 PM PDT

Looking to get a home theater powered subwoofer that offers the best oomph for your buck?

The Elemental Designs (eD) A2-300 is the company’s entry-level subwoofer. It’s proudly built in the USA at eD’s Iowa headquarters. They’ve recently revised the product design which is a good step the company is taking. Even entry-level products have to be improved.

Specifications of the A2-300 subwoofer:

Model Name	A2-300 Powered Home Audio Subwoofer
Amplifier Power	200w RMS
Subwoofer Driver Size	eD 12″ Subwoofer
Cabinet Type	Vented / Downfire
Room Tuning	20Hz FR - (18-100Hz +/-3dB)
In Room Avg SPL	114.8dB (10-100Hz Max Output Avg)
Shipping Weight	72lbs

Don’t let the 200w rating fool you! This is one badass subwoofer! Better get one now if you don’t wanna pay $50 more. Price will become $400 starting May 15, 2009.

Full details of the price increase can be found here.

Palm Pre expected to only last for a year?

Posted: 22 Apr 2009 01:30 PM PDT

Douglas A. McIntyre of 24/7 Wall Street wrote a prediction on what brands would be meeting their demise before the end of the year. Palm ranks 10th out of the 12 brands mentioned.

Will the Palm Pre be the company’s hidden gold mine after all these years? Or will it suffer a terrible fate like Circuit City?

Here is what Douglas A. McIntyre says about Palm:

10. Palm (PALM) has been at death's door for some time. It prospects have improved recently and the company has one last chance to become viable when it launches its new "Pre" product. Recent research shows that almost no one who owns an Apple (AAPL) iPhone or RIM (RIMM) Blackberry will switch to the new smartphone, so Palm will have to essentially expand the market to get share for its new device during a recession. The "Pre" will also be sold exclusively though Sprint (S), the No.3 cellular carrier in the US which has been losing subscribers consistently for more than two years. The launch of the "Pre" is a disaster in the making. Palm's results for the quarter that ended on February 27th were awful, failing to meet Wall St's modest expectations. Palm sold only 482,000 handsets for the period, down 42% from the same quarter the year before. Revenue dropped from $312 million to $91 million, and Palm lost $95 million. Palm brought in just over $100 million with the help of its largest shareholder, Elevation Partners, in a recent financing. The bottom line is that Palm has no chance of getting an even modest part of the smartphone market in a severe economic downturn since it competes with two of the premier technology companies in the world—Apple and RIM. Palm won't be in business in a year.

While it is true that Palm has strong competitors such as RIM and Apple, we can never really tell if they’re going to tank in a year, just look at the iPhone did for Apple. Who knows, their new webOS might revolutionize the software industry.

So Sprint better get that Palm Pre out and rolling before other updated devices (new iPhone’s, new BlackBerry’s) enter the market! And hopefully they don’t keep the Palm Pre from being CDMA and Sprint exclusive for long, there’s a whole new market with the GSM industry!

[in reaction to Palm To Meet Circuit City In Tech Heaven?]

Apple billionth app download projected to happen tomorrow morning

Posted: 22 Apr 2009 01:30 PM PDT

Worldwide web predictions say that the billionth app download is set to happen sometime tomorrow morning.

Yahoo! Messenger for the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch Based on CNET, mobileSQUARED (a UK-based research company) reports that 500 million downloads were achieved on January 19, 2009. That first 500 million took 6 months. The latter 500 million just happened in 94 days!

Just download an app and automatically get the chance to win a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule, and a MacBook Pro. You can also choose to enter without making a purchase.

Warner Bros. wants you to trade-in your HD DVDs for same title Blu-rays (for a fee)

Posted: 22 Apr 2009 12:30 PM PDT

Warner Bros. wants you to exchange your HD DVDs for Blu-ray counterparts, for a small fee.

As of now, there are 128 titles you can convert to Blu-ray through the Warner Bros. Red2Blu program. Here are the program rules in PDF format.

If you read the PDF closely, you will find:

By Participating in the Program, you are also eligible to receive a coupon in the form of a promotional code for fifteen dollars ($15.00) off your purchase of fifty dollars ($50.00) worth of Blu-ray titles at regular prices on the WBShop.com site. Your $15.00 promotional code expires December 31, 2009.

Problem is, you’re better off buying from Amazon or the Best Buy/Target weekly promotions, because the Warner Bros. shop usually has ridiculous prices on Blu-rays.

The steps for the program are:

Select the Warner Bros. HD DVDs you want to upgrade to Blu-ray (Limit 1 per HD DVD title)
Mail the original HD DVD cover art to the Warner Bros. processing center (copies are not allowed)
Receive your Blu-ray discs of the same title in 4 to 5 weeks

Some things to be noted:

Shipping and handling is a flat rate fee of $6.95. Be sure to send in plenty of HD DVD sleeves to get your money’s worth (yes, you read that right, no HD DVD discs need to be sent to Warner Bros.)
For each title you want to upgrade, you have to shell out $4.95. So, if you’re upgrading 20 titles, that comes out to (20 x $4.95) + $6.95 = $105.95; or $5.30 per film.

Offer is only valid to Continental US, Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico residents.

[via DVD Town and Comics Worth Reading]

Where to buy Canon EOS 5D Mark II 4GB USB flash drive?

Posted: 22 Apr 2009 12:00 PM PDT

Some people have been searching for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II 4GB USB Flash Drive.

Let this post enlighten you on where you can buy this cool looking USB flash drive.

As of this time, only worldseller2 and fruit-trees on eBay are selling these. According to fruit-trees, the product is a limited edition Hong Kong Canon Club exclusive and was officially released by Hong Kong Canon Co, Ltd.

The Canon EOS 5D Mark II 4GB USB Flash Drive even comes with a miniature Canon neckstrap along with a plain-looking black box.

Expect to pay a big amount for these USB drives since they currently are going for a minimum of $139.99 USD (plus shipping!).

Photo Credit: fruit-trees

SPB Mobile Shell 3.0 UI for Windows Mobile devices, now available

Posted: 22 Apr 2009 10:30 AM PDT

Spb Software has developed an on-top user interface for Windows Mobile devices and it is available starting today. What I mean by on-top is that it masks you away from the dull and boring Windows Mobile interface underneath. It can be considered as an alternative to HTC’s TouchFLO interface.

The Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 offers two main screens, professional (for work) and lifestyle (for personal/leisure), widget-based photo contacts with Facebook integration, addition/removal of widgets depending on what you need, 3D carousel (left/center/right), hardware accelerator support, along with many other integrated tools that are suited for daily use.

It is available for the following Windows Mobile operating systems:

Windows Mobile 5 Phone Edition
Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC
Windows Mobile 6 Classic
Windows Mobile 6 Professional
Windows Mobile 6.1 Classic
Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional

Price is $29.95 and it can be purchased via Spb’s website.

A couple of videos showing the capabilities of Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 are available. The first shows the general features of the user interface.

The second video is by Brandon Miniman of pocketnow.com, showing an actual live demonstration of the software running on a HTC Touch Diamond2.

[via 1800PocketPC.com]

Sprint spends $264,000 to heighten the Palm Pre hype?

Posted: 22 Apr 2009 09:00 AM PDT

Sprint seems to be going all-out on the Palm Pre. They recently purchased a full page advertising spot on the Wall Street Journal which reportedly cost $264,000. It seems like Sprint wants to make no mistake in making the Palm Pre the “it” phone once it is launched.

Below is another Sprint advertisement, this time in video, promoting Twitter, bragging about being the first 4G network, and a slight tease that shows the Palm Pre near the end. The video pretty much summarizes what you can do with smartphones also. You can e-mail, Twitter, surf the web, among other things.

While the video seems very interesting, it makes me wonder whether Sprint truly knows the explicit information that is going in and out of their network. Pretty touchy on invasion of privacy, don’t you think?

Let’s wait and see if Sprint will deliver the Palm Pre to subscribers as predicted.

[via IntoMobile]