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- iPhone 3G and 3GS to be offered by Orange UK — official
- New plastic MacBooks imminent: “most affordable” to date
- Motorola CLIQ battery woefully inadequate warns preview
- iPhone 3GS netbook transformer (yeah, we know it’s not real) [Video]
- China Unicom prices iPhone for October 1st launch
- HulloMail Launches Visual Voicemail App For BlackBerry
- HTC HD2 (aka Leo) benchmarks trounce Touch HD
- Gateway’s LT2016u netbook coming to Verizon next weekend
- O2 losing iPhone 3GS exclusivity: on Orange UK later in 2009
- Twitter Unearths A Secret: Journalists Have Opinions
| iPhone 3G and 3GS to be offered by Orange UK — official Posted: 28 Sep 2009 02:07 AM PDT
 Well well, turns out rumors sometimes do come true. The widely speculated end to O2’s exclusivity of the iPhone is now upon us and Orange is the first competitor to throw its hat into the ring. The company has not yet released tariff pricing, but there’s a tantalizingly small release window, as availability is promised “later this year.” At least there’s finally some competition when it comes to the iPhone in the UK, and we can also probably look forward to T-Mobile joining in on the fun. Let the price war begin! [Via iPhone Bang; Thanks, Gears] Filed under: Cellphones iPhone 3G and 3GS to be offered by Orange UK — official originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| New plastic MacBooks imminent: “most affordable” to date Posted: 28 Sep 2009 02:01 AM PDT
Apple have already been tipped as readying a new entry-level MacBook once this month, and now the second nod to the polycarbonate MacBook line has come, courtesy of AppleInsider. They’ve heard that the range refresh will likely be launched alongside the rumored new iMac desktops, themselves described as “imminent”, and be the Cupertino company’s “most affordable notebook offerings” to date.
Hardware details are unconfirmed; however it’s been said that the new entry-level MacBooks will be thinner, sleeker and use Apple’s internal battery technology which trades user-accessibility for longer runtimes. Another source has suggested that the MacBooks will continue to be clad in white plastic, unlike the unibody-aluminum chassis used in the MacBook Pro range. The new MacBook and iMac lines, AppleInsider suggest, will round out Apple’s holiday 2009 line-up, and pave the way for the much-rumored Apple Tablet which is expected to arrive in February 2010. That would create a broad sweep of products from the $99 price-point iPhone 3G, through the 3GS, Tablet, and topping out at a $999 new MacBook, all under the $1,000 dollar range; Apple’s nod to the ongoing economic crisis. Relevant Entries on SlashGear
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| Motorola CLIQ battery woefully inadequate warns preview Posted: 28 Sep 2009 01:53 AM PDT
We’re not cellphone manufacturers, but we can’t imagine there’s much more disheartening to hear reviewers suggest your latest handset “isn’t ready for primetime”. Unfortunately for Motorola, that’s just the conclusion the Boy Genius Report have come to in their CLIQ preview, with the handset’s power-gobbling ways being the prime suspect for their dissatisfaction.
The problem seems to be the social networking aspect of MOTOBLUR, the data-hungry nature of which crunches through power as it continuously pulls in updates from Twitter, Facebook and other sites. Even that isn’t handled as best it could be; BGR even suggest “the people that created this phone barely use Twitter or Facebook for anything meaningful…”
Now, it’s worth noting that BGR have been informed that the software their preview units are running is not the final build, and that hopefully means Motorola’s engineers are working around the clock to make it less juice-thirsty. Unfortunately, even if they manage that, the opinion is still that the CLIQ (which will go on sale as the Motorola DEXT outside of the US), while a reasonable first attempt, is not the barnstormer the company perhaps hope it is. [via TheReallyMobileProject] Relevant Entries on SlashGear
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| iPhone 3GS netbook transformer (yeah, we know it’s not real) [Video] Posted: 28 Sep 2009 01:39 AM PDT
Now, before someone feels obligated to tell us that this isn’t real and is merely an animation, we do realise that there’s no software in the App Store that can actually transform your iPhone 3GS into a dinky netbook. Still, our love of time-consuming fan renders and Transformer-style videos leaves us honor-bound to mention Manuel Eder’s marvellous video of Apple’s smartphone doing just that.
Video after the cut Just to satisfy all of those who get wound up by the “practical” implications of such concepts, yes, the keyboard would likely be too small and there’s probably not much good to be had when your smartphone’s circuit-boards are used as an integrated stand. We doubt there’d be especially decent key travel, either, not to mention the embarrassment at parties if you accidentally triggered the app while the iPhone 3GS was in your pocket. Still, it’s just a render so we can ignore all that and spend the rest of the morning making Transformer noises under our breath. Watch, enjoy, move on. [via Tablets For The Net] Relevant Entries on SlashGear
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| China Unicom prices iPhone for October 1st launch Posted: 28 Sep 2009 01:35 AM PDT
 While the iPhone got an official announce for China last month, its retail pricing and delivery date have remained a mystery. That’s going to change later today when China Unicom is expected to announce an October 1st launch for Cupertino’s darling. Eight service packages ranging in price from 126 yuan (about $18) to 886 yuan (about $130) per month will be available to Unicom’s 141 million subscribers from a pool of 700 million cellphone toting Chinese. How much will it cost? 5,000 yuan or a steep $733 green retail. Subsidies of about 893 yuan (about $131) to 4,253 yuan (about $623) will be offered for those signing to long-term plans on Unicom’s fledgling 3G network. Looks like somebody’s standard of living is on the rise. Filed under: Cellphones China Unicom prices iPhone for October 1st launch originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 03:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| HulloMail Launches Visual Voicemail App For BlackBerry Posted: 28 Sep 2009 01:34 AM PDT
Voicemail. You hate it. We hate it. Damn near everyone hates it – at least, we all hate it in its current form. It’s an antiquated system desperately hobbling on its last leg in an industry where technology moves forward at a nearly absurd rate. While our phones get bigger and better each and every month, our voicemail system has, for the most part, remained the same for over a decade. That’s not to say there hasn’t been progress. There certainly has – but it’s isolated. A handful of smartphones (the iPhone, the Samsung Instinct, and a couple of BlackBerry handsets) have embraced visual voicemail, which does away with the archaic process of dialing in for your messages by bringing your messages to you. In 2008, YouMail rolled out an independent visual voicemail system aimed at smartphones that didn’t have it out-of-the-box. This morning a competitor out of the UK, HulloMail, took a huge step forward with the launch of a native BlackBerry application. Here is the original post:
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| HTC HD2 (aka Leo) benchmarks trounce Touch HD Posted: 28 Sep 2009 01:29 AM PDT
Windows Mobile 6.5 may not be provoking all that much interest compared to rival platforms, but one device which is certainly perking up attention is the HTC Leo, aka the HTC HD2. Tipped to arrive in October, the 4.3-inch flagship smartphone’s prize is its 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor; now one beta tester has released some benchmarking for the handset, and it’s looking to be a real stormer. The HD2 ousted HTC’s Touch HD in 3D graphics performance by around 300-percent.
Meanwhile basic CPU performance is also much improved, with the HD2 showing three times the crunching power of the Touch HD’s chipset. That goes some way to showing the power of Snapdragon, since the Touch HD’s clock-speed is actually only around half of that of the HD2. Considering our first experience with a Snapdragon-based handset – the Toshiba TG01 – left us seriously disappointed at the seeming lack of speed, this is all welcome news. One final tidbit – and a welcome one at that – is that while the HD2 may not support multitouch in Internet Explorer Mobile, it does in the Opera browser which apparently will be preinstalled when the handset ships. [via CoolSmartphone] Relevant Entries on SlashGear
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| Gateway’s LT2016u netbook coming to Verizon next weekend Posted: 28 Sep 2009 01:19 AM PDT
 Following the introduction of the HP Mini 1151NR earlier this year, Verizon’s push into the brave new world of subsidized netbooks continues this coming Sunday with the Gateway LT2016u, essentially a warmed-over LT2000 with enough legalese attached to it to make sure you’re a loyal Big Red customer for the next 24 months of your life. Like the Mini, the new Gateway features Qualcomm’s Gobi tech to make sure you’ve got 3G data available essentially anywhere in the world, but otherwise, the specs aren’t terribly interesting: 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 display, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive spinning at an uncreative 5400rpm, VGA webcam, Windows XP Home, and a package that tips the scales at 2.95 pounds (up a noticeable tick from the Mini’s 2.45). If you sign up for a two-year deal, you’re looking at $149.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate; a year ago, we were hoping these things would end up going for free on subsidy, but it looks like that dream might yet be a few years off. Filed under: Laptops, Wireless Gateway’s LT2016u netbook coming to Verizon next weekend originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 03:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| O2 losing iPhone 3GS exclusivity: on Orange UK later in 2009 Posted: 28 Sep 2009 01:17 AM PDT
UK would-be iPhone users desperate to avoid O2’s network can take heart in the fact that rival network Orange have just announced they will be offering the iPhone 3GS later this year. The Orange iPhone 3GS is yet to be priced, and nor have the company revealed the exact date it will go on sale, but there is a pre-interest page open for registrations.
Given that the first-generation iPhone originally went on sale in the UK on November 9th 2007, as an exclusive to O2, it seems a reasonable prediction that Orange will begin selling their version on November 9th 2009. That would make the “multi-year exclusive” deal between O2 and Apple a two-year one. As for pricing, since this move appears to be one of Apple broadening availability to increase overall sales – now attempting to pull in would-be iPhone 3GS owners not enamored of O2’s coverage or service, for instance – we’d expect the company to maintain its strong grip on pricing. That means a “battle to the bottom” where O2 and Orange push each other’s prices for the iPhone 3GS down to “free on contract” is unlikely. Relevant Entries on SlashGear
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| Twitter Unearths A Secret: Journalists Have Opinions Posted: 28 Sep 2009 01:17 AM PDT
That’s an excerpt from The Washington Post’s new social media guidelines. PaidContent has the entire thing. You really should read it, because it’s a hoot. These guidelines came about because Raju Narisetti, a WaPo editor, had some tweets recently that revealed *gasp* that he had opinions about issues. When word leaked out that he had his own opinions and was sharing them on Twitter, apparently the WaPo top brass scrambled quickly to get this under control. That included Narisetti deleting his Twitter account. Pathetic. So pathetic, that I’m kind of shocked that The Washington Post’s Omblog was allowed to publish all the details. Obviously, WaPo is doing this to try and maintain what it perceives to be its journalistic integrity. That’s great. But as we’ve discussed recently, the idea that any kind of reporting lacks any kind of bias on some level is laughable. It’s fine if you want your organization to only present the facts with no opinions, but the notion that those reporters do not have their own opinions is absurd. WaPo can try to hide those opinions all they want, but they exist, regardless. Here’s another excerpt: “Post journalists must refrain from writing, tweeting or posting anything—including photographs or video—that could be perceived as reflecting political, racial, sexist, religious or other bias or favoritism that could be used to tarnish our journalistic credibility. This same caution should be used when joining, following or friending any person or organization online.” Basically, if you are a human being, you must not show yourself as such online. The whole thing is ridiculous, but my favorite bit is the last part. You can’t even friend or follow people known to be affiliated with some movement or cause, or presumably is even just a biased person. This has all come up before, and it will undoubtedly come up again. Twitter is just the latest and probably easiest ways for people to reveal that they have their own opinions online. But this is also related to the issue of Facebook pictures getting people fired or just not hired from jobs. It’s not that companies/employers are asking their underlings to stop having opinions, or stop having fun at parties, they just want to make sure it’s hidden from the public. It’s basically “don’t ask, don’t tell” applied in a different sector. Again, it’s certainly reasonable to ask journalists to remove their opinions from pieces if that’s the kind of news you’re aiming for. But when you start getting into what they say on their personal online accounts, public or not, things get awfully murky. How deep does that rabbit hole go? Maybe those journalists should also refrain from stating their opinions at dinner parties. Maybe they shouldn’t be allowed to laugh at Michael Moore’s new movie when it comes out. Actually, they probably shouldn’t even be allowed to see it. They should also be careful of any movies in their queue on Netflix. And any books they buy on Amazon. And any music on iTunes. Hell, they should really just disconnect their computers from the Internet. And maybe stop leaving the office. Also, they should probably just stop having opinions. [photo: flickr/robnas monster] Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors Original post:
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