C’mon, cut us some slack here. We’re suckers for teasers, and our intuition says that you are too. Jabra, who has definitely done a thing or two for the Bluetooth headset realm, is apparently looking to reveal a “new shape” on October 20th, though it’ll only be sold through AT&T (at least initially). Heck, there’s even a countdown timer over on the outfit’s teaser page for those who’d like to watch every second from now till then tick away, not to mention a brief video that tersely details the forthcoming excellence. So, got any bright ideas about what this thing could be? The second coming of the BT headset? Just another tchotchke?
We’ve just heard from AT&T that new carrier settings for the iPhone 3G and 3GS will be available “late morning” Pacific Time (which would be early afternoon Eastern) this Friday, September 25, which will finally enable MMS support. Owners will have to tether up to iTunes to grab those settings, so fish out your cable (as if you don’t have it permanently attached to your machine already) and make sure you’ve got some solid time in front of the computer to check for the update over and over (and over) again, alright?
Word is that Deutsche Telekom (the parent company of T-Mobile) is now actively engaged in talks with Clearwire and MetroPCS to expand its 4G network. This isn’t terribly shocking to hear, considering that most other providers (including AT&T, Verizon and Sprint) are already either heavy into negotiations or in the process of upgrading their infrastructure. Though the company hasn’t yet said anything about planned expansions, word is its looking for the most “cost-effective” way to build nationwide networks capable of higher speeds.
We’ve got to give Nokia credit: they managed, against all odds, to come up with a truly unique form factor in creating the Twist for Verizon — a combination of shape, design, and mechanism that had never quite been seen before. Thing is, it’s the year 2009 and virtually every legitimate form factor has been explored, so how’d they pull that off? In a word, the Twist is… well, weird. A perfect square that swivels 90 degrees on a chrome ring with multicolored lights isn’t the most obvious way to put a phone together, but the old adage of “different strokes for different folks” definitely applies here. Follow the break to find out why.
Griffin, known for its accessories for the iPod and iPhone, has just announced its latest and greatest (though just how great is still in question). The latest iteration of the iTrip takes full advantage of iPhone OS 3.0, allowing you to control the FM transmitter from your iPhone / iPod touch itself. Aren’t luscious touchscreen controls preferable to the iTrip’s tiny buttons anyways? In addition to app integration, the transmitter features track and artist information on RDS-compatible radios, SmartScan technology for finding the best available frequency in any locale, and a micro-USB port for charging any USB-powered iPod or iPhone from a charger. iTrip is available for $49.99, and the iTrip Controller software can be downloaded for free from the App Store.
Palm’s App Catalog for the Pre properly launches tomorrow, and right now the question on most peoples’ minds is just how many paid apps will be in there when the doors open. Based on the latest word from the development team, the answer could be quite a lot. Apps submitted late to the party are apparently being added to approval queues so long Palm is having a hard time keeping track of them all. Developer Community Manager Chuq Von Rospach has indicated the approval group has “more applications than we could handle well,” apologizing because they have “dropped some things on the floor.” We’re hoping they’ll be picked up and dusted off quickly, because the five-second rule is not something to be messed with.
This one slipped right under our radar, but some Sprint stores have already started taking delivery of the awesome Motorola Endeavor HX1 headset — so at least one part of the rumor calling it out as a $159.99 Sprint exclusive was true. Fortunately, the pricing part of the rumor was false, because the sticker price you’ll find on the shelf is a slightly more palatable $129.99. That’s still pricey, yes, but at least it falls in line with the upper echelon of Bluetooth headsets on sale these days. We called around and found that some locations don’t have it, some don’t expect it until next week, and some already have a few socked away under the counter, so call around before you head out to pick it up.
Well, maybe featuring Jill is not quite accurate — “it’s gonna be, uh, at least, somewhat involving Jill Valentine,” confirms voice of Jill, Patricia Ja Lee, fresh from recording new voice and perhaps mocap work for Resident Evil 5 Director’s Cut. That’s right: Resident Evil 5 Director’s Cut. It seems that P.J. Lee has also inadvertently announced a new, more twisting, more turning version of RE5 in the works.
What else do we know? “It’s some good scenes.” Catch the full blab after the break.
RedLynx has announced (via Eurogamer) that Trials HD has sold in excess of 300,000 copies on Xbox Live Arcade. While that would be an impressive number for any XBLA game, the achievement is made even more so given that the game has only been on sale for a month. Previously, Microsoft touted the game as breaking the record for first-week sales of a single-player game. The feat was later squashed by Shadow Complex, but Trials HDremains one of the top five best-selling XBLA games.
We can only assume that the next record attempt will be for the most (and most frustrating) single-player DLC downloads.
It’s been on store shelves for less than two days and Halo 3: ODST has logged nearly a million players in the last 24 hours. More specifically, according to Bungie.net, the game had logged 936,278 players when this post was written. All of those troopers have managed to put away 5,653,310 games. That’s roughly six games per person in a 24-hour period. On a weekday. We don’t want to jump the gun here, but Bungie just might have a success on its hands.
