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Nokia Seemingly Planning to Release Touch-less and Gesture-controlled Devices – Patent Found

Nerd Grind — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:31:12 +0000

File this in the "overheard at a dinner party but may actually be true" category. Nokia’s chief designer, Alastair Curtis, was at one such dinner party chomping on foie gras and sipping wine when he he was asked why Nokia’s N-series of multimedia devices have yet to receive the multi-touch treatment. Curtis responded with "We’ve not launched what we think is right for N-series in a touch product. You’ll see in the coming months, years… what we feel is right." He then proceeded to make a series of hand gestures meant to suggest a Wii-like interface for the N-series.

This could have been chalked up to some rowdy dinner guests, but a patent for a similar device was just found online. It looks like Nokia may have something up their sleeves after all. It’s a good thing Alastair Curtis hasn’t been gifted with sensitive national secrets. He gets loose lipped after a glass of Pinot or two.

Below is a speculative video of how one such device could work:

ASUS Formally Announces the P565 Smartphone – Claims it is Fastest in World

Nerd Grind — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:21:34 +0000

ASUS has officially announced the P565 smartphone. The device had been rumored to be in development for some time but this is the first formal recognition by the company. The HSDPA smartphone features a Glide UI, Windows Mobile 6.1, 800MHz Marvell CPU, a 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen, 256MB flash memory and 128MB of DDR SDRAM. It also has 802.11b/g wireless capabilities, Bluetooth 2.0, and a microSD slot with SDHC support. ASUS claims it is the "fastest business PDA phone" in the world. They offer no word on pricing or availability yet though.

Verizon to End Pay-as-you-go Data Plans – Will Make Other Changes

Nerd Grind — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 13:56:53 +0000

According to a leaked document within the company, Verizon will soon be killing pay-as-you-go data plans. Starting on November 14th, every new PDA / smartphone launched will require a data plan of $29.99 or more monthly. Also, the document states that sometime in 2009 "select" Mobile Web 2.0 devices will also require a monthly data plan. No word on what devices this would apply to, however.

Dan Hesse Decries Android as Not Being Ready to Carry Sprint Branding

Nerd Grind — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 11:35:00 +0000

Dan Hesse, the CEO of Sprint, decried Android’s readiness to carry the Sprint brand during a recent talk he gave at the National Press Club in Washington. He decried the Google-powered phone as not "good enough to put the Sprint brand on."

He did infer the Android would one day be able to carry the branding, it just had a lot of work to do. He promised to sell the Google device "at some time in the future." Click here for the Reuters article on the matter.

Motorola’s Android slider to get social in Q2 2009

Nerd Grind — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 11:53:17 +0000

Motorola is trying to pick itself up by it’s bootstraps these days. The 2004 Razr craze has faded like three day old leftovers and the company now finds itself hopelessly behind in winning over the hearts and minds of geeks everywhere. Of course, they must be doing something right since they are still the number one seller of handsets. But those cellphone carriers give Razrs away like lollipops so that could account for the sales. It’s the early adopters that matter! They have the big money. Well, sometimes. Sometimes they just forgo eating.

The Android might change all of this. According to BusinessWeek, Moto’s Google-enabled handset will feature an "iPhone-like touch-screen", a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a host of social-network-friendly features. The magazine notes the device takes its design cues from the Krave ZN4 and resembles a high-end version of the T-Mobile G1 from HTC. It will, however, sell for less than the G1. The unit ships Q2 2009. Happy days could be here again for Moto fans!

Click the link for the BusinessWeek article.

Introducing the Pharos’ Traveller 117 and 127 WinMo phones

Nerd Grind — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:55:38 +0000

Back in the halcyon days of, oh, eighteen months ago, the Pharos’ line of GPS-equipped Windows Mobile Handsets were the coolest thing going. Imagine a phone that knows where you are! It was like magic. Then came the iPhone and it’s ilk, all of whom were also rocking some serious GPS mojo. The Pharos’ line stopped seeming magical and started seeming like the way a bar looks when they turn the main lights on in order to scare the last few alcoholics out for the night.

No more! Pharos’ is back with the Dell powered Traveller 117 and Traveller 127. Sure, they come equipped with AGPS out of the box. That’s not what makes them special though. The Traveller series also possesses a VGA display, tri-band 7.2Mbps downstream HSPA and a 2-megapixel VGA front facing-camera.

They are for sale "covertly" at the Dell online store. Shh. Don’t tell anybody I told you.

Sprint HTC Touch Pro faces delay

Nerd Grind — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 14:22:16 +0000

Those of you looking forward to, um, tomorrow’s launch of the Sprint HTC Touch Pro, prepare for a bubble burst. It’s not happening. Sprint cites the reason as an inventory issue. That’s certainly better than if the reason was a bug that caused your data service to only open e-mail by purveyors of penis pills. That’d be bad.

Sprint says to look for the device, for real this time, in early November. Let’s hold them to that.

BlackBerry Bold maybe, sorta coming out on October 27th.

Nerd Grind — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 12:20:57 +0000

An internal AT&T e-mail discovered today suggests that RIM’s hotly anticipated gadget will be available on October 27th. The company has been purposefully vague about a release date so to hear anything with an actual month and day on it is heartening. And even in time for Halloween! Now you can set up important business meetings while dressed as a skeleton.

This is, however, subject to change and it may be hogwash being as how e-mails aren’t the most trustworthy sources in the world. Wait, does that mean spam sites don’t actually offer Viagra at competitive prices and Barack Obama is not actually a muslim? Color me confused.

The price is still TBD.

BlackBerry Bold found to cost $170 to produce

Nerd Grind — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:02:54 +0000

A research firm called iSuppli did a bit of snooping and found that the forthcoming BlackBerry Bold costs $169.14 to produce. The firm announced that parts and materials total up to $158.16 and testing and assembly costs $11.25. The consultation fee paid to John McCain was not mentioned in the report.

This should em’bold’en RIM as they will likely find no problem selling the unit to carriers for $350. Good thing, too. There is a rumor going around that we are in a recession. Don’t worry though. Should it worsen, RIM has already begun work on the "BlackBerry Paper Cup Telephone." It won’t have data service.

Fujitsu Siemens Dumps PDAs / PNAs

Nerd Grind — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 15:13:53 +0000

Fujitsu Siemens confirmed that the German Japanese joint venture will leave the PDA and PNA market by the end of 2007. In a statement, FSC spokesperson Amy FlÃ©cher confirmed earlier information.

FlÃ©cher said: "We made our decision due to the usual examination of the portfolios. It turned out that the traditional handheld segment (PDA) shrank for years and also many other manufacturers leave this segment. While the wireless handheld market grows fast, the PDA market moves on a very low basis with small volume. The trend is that the traditional handhelds are replaced by other devices such as PNAs or Smartphones. We will not invest into these product ranges.
Handhelds and handheld devices with push E-Mail-push will remain a niche market. In the future these services will be taken over by Smartphones – which is not our business at all. We observe that other manufacturers, that offer similar devices, have to fight with difficulties.

NerdGrind - How-to Computer Help - Tutorials - Tech and Gadget News » PDA

Nokia Seemingly Planning to Release Touch-less and Gesture-controlled Devices – Patent Found

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