Hey, it’s hot out there. While you could lather-up into a deep dish of epidural man-gravy by trucking on over to the nearest brick-and-mortar, why not kick back on-line with Sprint for that new Palm Pre purchase? Sure, you’ll still have to mail-in the $100 rebate, but last we checked, licking a stamp won’t break a sweat.
The myTouch 3G is all well and good, but seeing how the Magic on which it’s based has already launched virtually everywhere else in the world, the phone itself isn’t really the big news — it’s more the strong commitment T-Mobile seems to be making to Android apps with the value-add pack it’s prepping. So far, shots and hands-on time with T-Mobile’s so called AppPack have been hard to come by, but xda-developers has just happened to “come across” a build that’s now available to anyone who wants to install it. Problem is, the AppPack doesn’t currently include Sherpa — the location-based entertainment app T-Mobile has really been pushing hard — apparently due to some last-minute problems T-Mob’s having, so for that, we turn to another corner of xda-developers for an installable APK. It’s expected that the carrier will be making the AppPack available to G1 owners, but just in case they had a last minute change of heart… well, let’s just say that’s not a concern anymore, if you know what we mean.
Looking for a way to further push the Snapdragon processor while constrained with a 4.1-inch screen, the Japanese-based Usuda Research Institute and Systems Corp has tacked on a MEMS motion sensor to Toshiba’s T-01A, also known as the TG01, for motion-based navigation around what it’s touting is a 2,000-inch picture. According to Nikkei, this “MotionPlus” like adapter has been shown to work alongside the camera, potentially paving the way for some AR application like we’ve seen with Tegra. It’s hard to tell from the videos just how accurate it is, but we’d love to see this go official — after a few cosmetic improvements, of course. Check out footage of the dongle in action after the break.
The “Quantum.” For us, a name like “Quantum” invokes visions of powerful, everlasting batteries, huge touchscreens, cameras that could makes your Hasselblad look like a Cracker Jack toy, and infinite badassery the likes of which the world has never known. Creating a phone that dares to bear the name Quantum, therefore, is less of an engineering science and more of an art. Admittedly, mating an iPhone with a Samsung Memoir never crossed our minds as a possible means to that end — but we’re pleased to see that some manufacturing firm had their eyes on the prize and saw that vision through to its glorious conclusion. Indeed, the Quantum is far greater than the sum of its parts — sure, the camera has shriveled from 8 megapixels to 0.3 and the radio has gone from HSDPA to GPRS, but college-level physics can’t be measured in megapixels or megabits per second. Especially when they only cost $94.03.
If you’re willing to peddle off three years of the prime of your life… well then, Canadians, Best Buy has an offer you simply can’t refuse. Telus has yet to release its version of the HTC Snap on its own accord, but that’s not stopping the big box retailer from doing its thing — and at CAD $29.99 (about $27) on a three-year contract, we’d venture to say that’s quite a steal for a WinMo smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard and global roaming capability. Anyone lining up at the registers right now for this one?
While the world waits with bated breath for TomTom to make good on its promise of providing a bona fide GPS application for iPhone OS 3.0, Navigon is stepping in with every intention of stealing the aforementioned firm’s thunder. Sure, AT&T has issued its own subscription app that dings you $9.95 per month, and we’ve also seen a few dedicated GPS apps surface from both Sygic and XRoad, but this is definitely the first on-board iPhone nav solution from what we’d call a “major” GPS company. Available starting today in the App Store, the 1.29GB MobileNavigator program contains comprehensive NAVTEQ maps of North America, and if you’re interested in Europe, Navigon’s app for that side of the pond was released around a month ago. Click on for a few of our thoughts.
Back in the heady pre-9500 days when “touchscreen BlackBerry” was still a novel and exotic phrase, “Storm” and “Thunder” were both rumored as codenames for RIM’s first foray into touch territory. Of course, “Storm” would ultimately prevail as the retail branding — and the rest, as they say, is history. Or is it? A BlackBerry Thunder has apparently magically reappeared in Verizon’s systems this week, though it’s not clear whether this is a new device — the Storm 2, for instance — or just residual offal from the original Storm launch last year. If it’s new, we get the theme, but what’s next? Hail? Tornado? Sleet?
Dare we call this new shot of HTC’s alleged Click almost… artistic? It’s a great picture, almost ripe for an official press release — but as far as we can tell, there’s nothing official about it. The phone, which is said to be bringing Android to a new, cheaper target demo the same way the Touch Viva did for WinMo, has popped up on a Vietnamese message board — it’s not on, unfortunately, but you can clearly make out the presence of enough Android-required buttons to deduce that there’s some Google code under the hood here. We still can’t decide how usable that giant nav pad is going to be, but hopefully, we have a chance to find out for ourselves sooner rather than later — we’re obviously not visiting Vietnam enough.
How much are you willing to pay for Infinity Ward’s latest tunnel-of-fun shooter? Is it £54.99 (close to $90)? If so, you’ve passed what Michael Pachter calls “a one-time test for Activision.” Or maybe Activision is passing the test. The point is … nobody likes taking tests! No, that’s not it.
The Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst has told Eurogamer that Modern Warfare 2’s higher retail price — allegedly spurred on by the Euro’s strength against the British Pound — stems from a calculated business decision. “Activision knows it has a ‘hot’ game, knows that the market will pay an additional 10 per cent, and has decided to increase price accordingly,” Pachter said, adding that the Pound was worth less last year when Call of Duty: World at War launched. Pachter speculates that should the gamble pay off, consumers can expect other games to similarly prod established price boundaries.
It’s approaching that time. Development cycles are coming to an end, the summer trade-show circuit is in full swing and Christmas is fast approaching. That means publishers are starting to nail down release dates for this year’s must-have X-mas present. Borderlands is the latest game to be dated and it will be available to grab off store shelves in October, as planned. October 20, to be exact.
That’s the American date, anyway. Europeans can expect to wait three days more to get their hands on Gearbox’s RPG shooter with a much improved art style, on October 23.
