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Ears-on with Sony Ericsson MH907 Motion Activated Headphones

by Richard Lai posted Nov 4th 2009 at 11:25AM

What we have here today isn't just another pair of ordinary headphones: Sony Ericsson's MH907s are button-free, minimalistic headphones that activate upon the magical touch of your skin. Well, your ears to be precise. You must bear in mind that the MH907s are exclusive to Fast port-equipped Sony Ericsson phones thus excluding the forthcoming XPERIA X10 -- so chances are you're already not interested. That said, we shall see if Sony Ericsson is really going to change things forever with these gleaming buds featuring SE's SensMe Control technology, or by just stopping everyone from using their 3.5mm headphone jacks. Read on to find out how these €39 ($57) headphones fared.

Gallery: Ears-on with Sony Ericsson MH907 Motion Activated Headphones

Continue reading Ears-on with Sony Ericsson MH907 Motion Activated Headphones

Bang & Olufsen BeoCom 5 landline: all the cool kids have one

by Laura June posted Oct 21st 2009 at 1:42AM

We know what you're thinking: what could be more impressive to your "friends" than an incredibly super sweet landline telephone about 9 years after most people stopped having them? That's right, a landline. Bang & Olufsen's BeoCom 5 is destined to take things to the next level with hot functions like "hold" and the ability to store up to 400 contacts. The BeoCom 5 also boasts a rad looking speaker phone if you want to get a whole group convo going like we did back in junior high. Other good news here is that this baby can handle two separate lines -- in case one is simply not enough. No word on when the newest BeoCom will be unleashed, or how much it will cost, but we're going to guess it won't be cheap.

[Via Acquire Mag]

HiPhone F320: 'a rotary phone and an iPod nano walk into a bar...'

by Darren Murph posted Oct 20th 2009 at 4:03PM

With a name like HiPhone, it has to be good, right? Totally. The outfit famous for knocking off RIM's BlackBerry Storm in impressive fashion is back, this time with a psychedelic mishmash that could make even the most hardened soul chuckle once or twice. The F320 is -- as you can so clearly see above -- a terribly funny combination of iPod nano and rotary phone, and while we wouldn't trust the specifications for a minute, we're told that it's a dual-band GSM handset with a built-in multimedia player, FM tuner, camera, 2.6-inch touchscreen and Bluetooth. There's no mention of a price (unless you're willing to commit to buying a few hundred), but trust us, it's better that way.

[Via PMP Today]

Acer neoTouch S200 reviewed, not recommended

by Laura June posted Oct 20th 2009 at 11:09AM

After what seemed like a full lifetime of waiting, Acer's recently-launched neoTouch S200 is finally making its way into some reviewing hands. The fine young cannibals over at Phone Arena have just given it the head to toe treatment, and we have to say, we're glad they've done the dirty work for us. This WinMo 6.5 handset, according to their impressions, seems to be a not fully baked affair -- sluggishness and random crashing are both reported, as is a rather serious sounding call quality issue. The battery also seems to be inadequate for a workday, coming in at around five hours. Overall, the phone suffers from software optimization problems more than hardware issues. The one ray of light in all this is of course that 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, which can multitask and handle several things at once without flinching -- but it's rather hard to get pumped about it in the face of all that sadness. Hit the read link for the full, exhaustive review.

LG GD900 Crystal makes a very portable fish tank, PETA magnet

by Richard Lai posted Oct 17th 2009 at 1:42AM

Remember the good old days with your virtual pets on your keyring? Well, how about an injection of life that actually roams around inside your phone? Some dude in China had this exact idea -- probably inspired by the waterproof LG GD900 Crystal in a fish tank -- and popped open the hollow keypad of his own Crystal, slapped in two unfortunate little neon tetras, squeezed in some water and snap! There's no mention on how long the poor things can survive in there for, but chances are PETA will be after your backside well before something goes wrong. We also went through the warranty paperwork, and honestly, we think this gentleman might be in a fishy area here. Video of the mod after the break, if you dare.

Continue reading LG GD900 Crystal makes a very portable fish tank, PETA magnet

New VTech cordless can download cellphone address books over Bluetooth

by Nilay Patel posted Sep 29th 2009 at 6:28AM

We've seen plenty of landline phones that can also double as Bluetooth headsets, but VTech's new DS6321-3 takes it to the next level: it can also pull down your phone's address book, meaning you'll never have to remember a number again. Apart from that it's the usual cordless phone stuff, with DECT 6.0, three handsets, and -- they still have these! -- an answering machine, but it's really the Bluetooth stuff that's interesting here, so much so that VTech's even promoting this guy for use in homes without landlines. Should be out now for $100.

Ask Engadget: What's the best business phone out there?

by Darren Murph posted Sep 24th 2009 at 11:27PM

We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget question is coming to us from Jimmy, who's making it his business to find out what phone currently on the market is best for business.

"I'm in the market for a new phone and money isn't a limitation. I'm also not partial to any particular US carrier, but here are some of the features I'd like to have: WiFi, GPS, good coverage in lots of places, push Gmail (a must!), physical keyboard (a must!), a touchscreen, decent battery life and a relatively slim body. And please, nothing that has a fruit logo on it. No offense to the fruit fans, though. Thanks!"

We've a feeling you started something Jimmy, and we're not so sure we're going to like the outcome. At any rate, we'd ask the dear readers to chime in here with a little help, and if you really had "iPhone 3GS" on the tip of your tongue, feel free to list it anyway -- but your reasoning better be really, really good.

Moblin 2.1 eyes-on

by Nilay Patel posted Sep 22nd 2009 at 1:10PM

Intel wouldn't let anyone touch it -- or even close the browser out to the home screen -- but we just got a quick glimpse of the new phone-oriented Moblin 2.1 running on an unnamed Compal MID and an Acer netbook. It's certainly pretty, and the widgets look nice, but we're not going to be happy until we can poke at it ourselves. One more pic after the break!

Continue reading Moblin 2.1 eyes-on

Intel announces Moblin 2.1 for phones

by Nilay Patel posted Sep 22nd 2009 at 12:48PM

Intel just announced a new version of Moblin designed for phones, running on an Atom-based phone. The interface has been redesigned for handheld usage, and there's a lot of widget-based social networking integration, as well as a panels-based navigation system that allows you to flip through multiple running applications. There's no hard date on when this might ship, but it was demoed running on a MID -- which we'll be scoring the show floor trying to find just as soon as the keynote is over.

Continue reading Intel announces Moblin 2.1 for phones

Verizon CEO doesn't care about landlines anymore, feels 'liberated' by new outlook

by Ross Miller posted Sep 17th 2009 at 8:42PM

Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg isn't too upbeat on the future of landlines, telling the audience at a Goldman Sachs investor conference today that the company is just not interested in telephones connected with wires. The chief exec of one of the nation's biggest telecommunications firms continued with his gospel, saying his "thinking has matured" and that trying to predict when the dwindling landline business will plateau is akin to "the dog chasing the bus." He says the new way of thinking is "liberating," but of course, endeavors like the Hub technically don't count as landlines to the company since it'sVoIP, and the coupled with its continued success as the largest cellular provider in terms of subscriber base, yeah, we're sure it's not too tough a pill to swallow. So how abut ramping up FiOS installations just a wee bit faster, eh Ivan?

Archos phone tablet teased: Android, 4.3-inch touschscreen, 1GHz ARM processor

by Ross Miller posted Sep 15th 2009 at 3:55PM

In an all-too brief teaser at a press conference across the pond, Archos decided to give a few more details and a teaser pic of the Android phone it announced back in February. According to the slide, it's got a 4.3-inch touchscreen with 854 x 480 resolution, a 1GHz ARM processor -- likely comparable to Archos 5, but pretty powerful considering what all other Android phones have so far arrived with -- and a 10mm-thick shell. Size and specs-wise, it matches up quite handily to the Snapdragon- and Windows Mobile-powered Toshiba TG01, although that one's already taking up retail shelf space, and it looks like we'll be waiting for some of those infamous Archos leaks if we want any more information the phone tablet in the near future.

Video: Nokia N900 used to control British art installation

by Nilay Patel posted Sep 4th 2009 at 6:58PM

The new Nokia N900 is only a week old, but it's already being put to some interesting uses -- like this nifty little video wall commissioned by Nokia at the onedotzero adventures in motion festival in London. A custom Maemo 5 app sends messages to the display, and then the phone's accelerometer can be used to control the animation. Sure, it's not the most super-original phone+art installation we've ever seen, but it's certainly quite pretty -- check the video after the break.

Continue reading Video: Nokia N900 used to control British art installation

Deprived of a defective battery, phone resorts to remotely starting oven to satisfy pyromania

by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 24th 2009 at 11:11PM

Electronics and small, potentially lethal bouts of combustion go together like peas in a pod, but you know phones -- they're always branching out, conquering new markets, getting smarter, and doing things they've never done before. Take the common exploding battery, for instance; what happens when that trick gets played out? One creative option would be to find the closest source of natural gas and ignite it from afar, which is what one New York gentleman's Sony Ericsson (a classic P910i, we believe) has taken to doing. It seems that the phone somehow triggers the burners on his Magic Chef range to ignite when it's called -- in fact, they don't just light up, they go straight to the hellish "HI" setting, as the appliance's display is eager to point out -- and other phones tested have incited similar effects. For its part, Maytag (Magic Chef's parent company) says "this situation is highly unusual," so we wouldn't freak out about setting our phones on unlit ranges just yet -- unless you've already got a healthy fear of burning your $500 phone to a crisp for other unrelated reasons.

[Via Yahoo! Tech]

Mysterious Android MID poses for yet more pics, reads Engadget

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Aug 24th 2009 at 1:03PM

You know, if you're trying to get our attention, there are worse ways to go about it than by releasing photos of a mystery gadget proudly displaying our homepage. And though there is no credible word yet on the origin of all these Android MID pics that keep making the rounds, there has been much speculation. As SlashGear points out, the device has more than a passing resemblance to the Wallet, which France's eviGroup has been threatening to lay on the world since back in May (a 5-inch touchscreen device touted as "halfway between a cellphone and a TabletPC"). And if that isn't enough, someone named focus3G has been furiously posting new pics of the thing on his Twitpic account for two weeks now -- we've contacted him for an explanation to no avail (not yet, at least). But what do you think? Hit the gallery below, and let the speculation begin.

Gallery: Mysterious Android MID poses for yet more pics, reads Engadget

Read - Wallet MID gets closer to release, US launch possible
Read - Even more photos of unknown Android MID appear

Cloud Telecomputers announces Android-based Glass platform for desk phones

by Donald Melanson posted Aug 20th 2009 at 4:04PM

It may not be the first to come up with the bright idea of putting Android on a desk phone-esque device, but upstart Could Telecomputers may well be the most ambitious, with it boasting that its new Glass platform "makes the desk phone relevant again," and is "smarter and more powerful than your 'smart cell phone.'" To that end, the company has basically paired a full-fledged, 8-inch Android-based MID with a plain old corded phone, which will let you do things like dial numbers directly from your Outlook address book, pair up a cellphone via Bluetooth and, of course, take advantage of a whole range of Android apps that should put most other internet-connected desk phones to shame. As you probably picked up, however, this is still a platform and not an actual product just yet, but Cloud Telecomputers does have some pretty heavy backers behind it, and it "anticipates" that the first phones should be available sometime in the first quarter of 2010 for between $599 and $699.

[Via PR Newswire]