AT&T has started to receive HTC’s new touch device the Pure. I had a chance to spend a short amount of time with the HTC Pure this weekend, here are my observations.

The Pure may be the first Windows Mobile 6.5 device that brings mass appeal to what at best is a finicky touch screen market. To qualify that I will simply just say that I have been sorely disappointed with previous Windows Mobile touch screen devices on the market. To be fare I didn’t know I was disappointed until I picked up an iPhone last year; yes I was late to the iParty. Until then I was a blissfully happy schmuck with my HTC Fuze. What the iPhone had that made it superior was its capacitive touch screen; the HTC had a traditional resistive touch.

Delivering on its promise to give consumers a variety of choices, Sony announced the third member of its new Reader family - the Reader Daily Edition, a highly-anticipated wireless model with 3G connectivity.  The Daily Edition caps its new line of Reader products, joining the Reader Pocket Edition and the Reader Touch Edition which were announced earlier this month.

The Reader Pocket Edition and the Reader Touch Edition are available immediately, and the Reader Daily Edition will be available this December in time for the holidays at SonyStyle stores and SonyStyle.com.

The Reader Daily Edition gives consumers wireless access via AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband network to Sony’s eBook store from just about anywhere in the U.S.  Book lovers will be able to browse, purchase and download books as well as select newspapers and magazines when and where they want. There are no monthly fees or transaction charges for the basic wireless connectivity and users still have the option to side load personal documents or content from other compatible sites via USB.

Sony is delivering on its promise of making digital readers and eBooks accessible and affordable for consumers with the introduction of two new Readers.  Part of a new Reader line, the Reader Pocket Edition rolls in at only $199. Both the Reader Pocket Edition and the Reader Touch Edition will be available at the end of August, at SonyStyle.com, SonyStyle stores and select retail partners. Also, new releases and New York Times bestseller titles in the eBook Store from Sony will now be available for $9.99.

The Reader Pocket Edition sports a five-inch electronic paper display packaged in a stylish chassis and is available in a variety of colors, including navy blue, rose and silver. The Reader Pocket Edition fits into a purse or jacket pocket. The device can store about 350 standard eBooks and provides up to two weeks on a single battery charge.

The Reader Touch Edition features a menu-driven six-inch touch screen panel that enables navigation, page turning, highlighting and note taking with the swipe of a finger or by using the included stylus pen. Users can take handwritten notes with the stylus pen or type with the virtual keyboard. All notes can be exported and printed out for easy reference. The Reader Touch Edition includes an onboard Oxford American English Dictionary that allows you to look up a word by simply tapping on it. The Touch Edition also offers five adjustable font sizes, as well as expansion slots for both Memory Stick PRO Duo and SD card. It comes in red, black or silver and will retail for about $299.

The only thing wrong with using your PC and Windows Media Center as for watching movies, listening to music, or watching TV is that using a wireless keyboard and mouse to control your TV and media isn’t the best experience. 

Some of the early dedicated Media PCs came with remotes and some laptops still do, but since virtually every PC sold these days comes with a version of Vista that includes Media Center, there are way more media-capable PCs out there and not many remotes among them.

Adesso, who makes a variety of inexpensive but good quality input devices has stepped up to with the Vista Remote to provide an inexpensive solution.

Netbooks are the hottest portable computers today, so if you have one then you probably need a protective bag.  Most Netbooks are low cost and so have few accessories included.  Most of the bags and protective sleeves I have seen on the market are pretty basic.  At my local office supply store, I found one protective sleeve for a 10” Netbook that was only a simple neoprene sleeve with a metal zipper.  Simple and a little over priced at $29.99.

The Ultra Portable Netbook SlipSuit from Mobile Edge stands out from the crowd.  First off, it is still a soft, durable, and water-resistant neoprene sleeve, but with a few nice extra like a zippered pouch on the outside for your mobile phone, MP3 player, or power supply.  The zippers, on the outside pouch and main compartment, are nylon and each zipper even has a nice rubber tabbed, corded zipper-pull which is easy and comfortable to use.

If your life revolves around making video games, then you would be in San Francisco this week.  The annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco (http://www.gdconf.com/) is THE major event for the game development industry.  GDC is five days of educational sessions, specialized summits, networking events, and expo & career pavilions.

On the final day at GDC, the show continues with lots of activity in the Career Fair.  With the continuing bad economy and poor job outlook, there were many people visiting all the exhibiting companies with resumes and demo reels in hand.  While there were many companies looking for new talent, then number of openings appears to be small.

Many of the final lectures and sessions were very full as the conference attendees eagerly rush to take in a final chance to learn from the many experienced speakers before the close of the show.  As the show ended, hundreds gathered in the main lobby of the convention center reluctant to see this year’s GDC end.

Some things that caught our attention on Friday were:

If your life revolves around making video games, then you would be in San Francisco this week.  The annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco (http://www.gdconf.com/) is THE major event for the game development industry.  GDC is five days of educational sessions, specialized summits, networking events, and expo & career pavilions.

The second day for the main part of the show opened today with the Career Fair and Expo Hall as well as more session for Art, Programming, Design, Production, etc.

Some things that caught our attention on Thursday were:

If your life revolves around making video games, then you would be in San Francisco this week.  The annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco (http://www.gdconf.com/) is THE major event for the game development industry.  GDC is five days of educational sessions, specialized summits, networking events, and expo & career pavilions.

The main part of the show opened today with the Career Fair and Expo Hall as well as more session for Art, Programming, Design, Production, etc.
Also featured today was a Keynote Address from Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo, who spoke about how Nintendo & Independent Developers can both be successful in the same market and how Nintendo’s Star Designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, approaches design and development.

Some things that caught our attention on Wednesday were:

If your life revolves around making video games, then you would be in San Francisco this week.  The annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco (http://www.gdconf.com/) is THE major event for the game development industry.  GDC is five days of educational sessions, specialized summits, networking events, and expo & career pavilions.

We will be roaming the show to bring you tidbits of news that will affect the technology and games you will be playing soon.  Many of the news stories we will bring you will become product reviews in the futures as new products announced at GDC reach your local retail store.

The first two days of GDC are specialized summits including Outsourcing and Mobile.  These summits allow the attendees to get focused instruction on specific areas of the game industry.

Some things that caught our attention today were:

Quote:

Onyx has product listings on Alibaba. They have 10 different case designs ready to manufacture. They range from nice but bland to a couple very pretty ones.

I also just got an email from Onyx telling me that we had incorrect information yesterday. The default CPU speed is 532MHz, and the BOOX does support EPUB. (I don’t know about you, but this makes the device even more tempting.) There is also a Youtube video.

You gotta see the video. It shows how to use the touch screen to use the menu, write and erase notes, and swipe to turn the page. It also shows the web browser.

Join the discussion over at MobileRead: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40424

First of all, the Nautiz X5 is fast and powerful. Its 806 MHz Xscale processor, 256 MB RAM and 512 MB Flash memory is just wow. With Windows Mobile 6.1, a full VGA screen, and a battery that lasts more than a full workday on a single charge this handheld takes no prisoners.

The Nautiz X5 has an integrated 3 megapixel autofocus camera, and it also includes integrated 1-D laser barcode scanning or an optional 2-D imager. It offers a standard GSM/UMTS voice and high speed HSDPA data connectivity with lightning-fast, 3G communication. The Nautiz X5 has integrated Bluetooth and 802.11b/g, with WPA2 encryption for improved security and CCX certification for better interoperability. And with state-of-the-art SIRF Instant Fix II technology, the Nautiz X5’s GPS computes positions in seconds.

Did I mention abuse in the title? An IP65 rating means the Nautiz X5 is impervious to dust and highly water-resistant, and it can withstand drops from 1.8 meters and operate in a wide range of temperatures. It weights only 410 g (14.46 ounces) including rechargeable battery and fits comfortably in anyone’s hand, 160mm (6.3”) x 80 mm (3.15”) x 35.5mm (1.4”).

More specs:

Connections:  USB host/client, Serial (ttl), Audio jack, IrDA, Ethernet (via desktop cradle), MicroSD slot.
Communication:  PAN: Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, WLAN*: integrated 802.11b/g, WITH WEP, WPA, WPA2, CCX Cisco Compatible extensions, Integrated GPS Sirf III with Instant Fix II, GSM/UMTS (HSDPA/EDGE), Integrated speaker & microphone.
More: http://www.nautiz.com/default.asp
Source: Engadget

For this article I will be focusing on the 3G set-up and my initial thoughts about the HP Mini 1000.

Stalking the HP Mini 1000

I have been watching the netbook market with some varied interest over the past year.  I had only a few criteria for purchasing a netbook; it had to comfortably run Windows OS software, weigh less than 2 1/2 pounds, have internal 3G, and a semi competent keyboard.

The HP Mini 1000 seemed to fit all of my needs out of the box. After watching the HP site for the last couple of months I decided to take advantage of their $100 3G upgrade offer and order a custom unit. To the basic configuration I added Bluetooth, the 3G upgrade offer, 1 GB ram upgrade offer. This brought me to just under $550 shipped with a coupon.

With my order placed my next question was how to get the 3G activated. The HP site said I could use Verizon or AT&T. OK, great except they never asked me which one I wanted; in the past I would have had to pick one or the other. I saw no place to select an EVDO 3G card or a HSDPA/UMTS 3G card on my order. I kept expecting HP to call or email me asking what card to install into the HP Mini 1000. About a week and half later a curiously small box arrived from Asia; the HP Mini 1000 had arrived.

Super Talent Technology today launched an SSD upgrade for the Asus S101 Eee PC in capacities up to 64GB. This is a nice upgrade to the Windows model of the S101 which includes only 16GB SSD local storage.

Models and size:

FPM16RSE / 16GB
FPM32RSE / 32GB
FPM64RSE / 64GB

This new SSD has been rigorously tested in Super Talent’s compatibility labs for both performance and functionality to ensure it meets Super Talent’s high quality standards. According to their testing the new kits deliver 90 MB/sec max sequential read speeds and up to 55 MB/sec write speeds.

All three models are shipping now. The 64GB model will retail for approximately $169.

http://www.supertalent.com/products/ssd_detail.php?type=SATA%20Mini%20PCIe

Quoted from AndroidAuthority.com:

The phone, called the DSTL1, is shown in a few renderings in the gallery below.  Astute readers will note that the button configuration on the phone, as shown, won’t fly for Android.  Android phones currently need 5 hardware buttons in order to work (home, back, menu, call send, call end).  General Mobile says that the front of the phone will change from what is shown in the renderings in order to accommodate Android.  But I’m also a bit worried about the display, which is said to be a 400x240 pixel unit manufactured by Sharp.

The specs as they stand today are as follows:

Dual-SIM cards with dual-Standby mode
624MHz Marvell PXA 310 processor
Tri-band GSM/EDGE support (900/1800/1900MHz)
3-inch WQVGA touchscreen display, 260k colors
802.11b/g WiFi support
Bluetooth
135g (4.75oz), 112 x 54 x 16mm (4.4 x 2.1 x .6 inches)
5 megapixel autofocus camera with flash (made by Sharp)

Source: Engadget.com

I spotted this on Engadget this morning. It appears our home location is listed as America’s most wired city, edging out Atlanta for the first time. Since we are located about two blocks from Microsoft and AT&T, i am not supprised by this development.

Quote:

Move over, Atlanta. Seattle, Microsoft and Amazon.com’s home base, is now the country’s most wired city.

While these marquee names have long lent the Emerald City tech-y cachet, it was Seattle’s increased use of broadband that powered it up Forbes’ annual list of the 30 most broadband-connected cities in the U.S. High marks in two other wired city categories—broadband access and wi-fi hot spots—helped Seattle clinch the top spot.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/22/wired-cities-2009-tech-wire-cx_ew_0122wiredcities.html