What Are The Most Stylish Laptops And Ultrabooks?
Laptop Buying Guide 2012: How To Find The Right Laptop For You
Spotify Finally Makes Its Australian Debut
Top 10 Pervasive Tech Myths That Are Only Wasting Your Time
HTC One XL Review: The Best Is Getting Better
The Lies Everyone Tells On Dating Sites
OK, so we’ve mentioned a few times comps are on the way, but we haven’t quite finalised any just yet… yet… Well our sexy, scandalous, sister site, Defamer, has gone and trumped us with a comp — and they’re giving away a mobile every text monkey would love.
If you want a piece of the HipTop3 action, head on over, hit the comp, and give them your best Lohan to Hilton, or vice versa, text message impersonation to win the phone, as well as an invite for two to the VIP launch party. Yeah, I know. That’s hot. I get it. Closes May 21st. -Seamus Byrne
Today, Alltel, the littlest big carrier, launches Jump Music, software that’s iTunes-like in its dual nature as music manager and storefront. The announcement might seem like a non-event to most Giz readers—how many Alltel customers are even out there in the Giz nation? But you may want to start paying attention to the carrier: Like T-Mobile, Alltel has begun to address concerns of younger, more deal-conscious customers with unique pricing and unusual phone features. Alltel launched the “My Circle” network, which lets you pick 10 people from any network that you want to talk to for free. (OK, for “free.”) Now it is getting into the music business.
As fans of the hallowed Frog Design (or, if you prefer the k.d. lang version, “frog design”) we were stoked to hear that Alltel used them to design the user interface for the music store. Frog had previously designed a “cell top” interface for an Alltel-powered Samsung u520. Now it seems it’s extending that aesthetic to the desktop, as you can see above.
Design cred aside, the Jump Music software is cool because it provides a storefront to eMusic, the DRM-free music store that reminds us every so often that it is second only to iTunes in downloaded songs. (And you get 35 free tracks for joining, as opposed to eMusic’s customary 25 free tracks.)
The software will manage your existing MP3s, and allow you to sort and transfer tracks to phones including the LG AX8600, MOTOKRZR K1m, MOTORAZR V3m, The Wafer by Samsung and the aforementioned u520. It doesn’t look comprehensive enough to be some kind of full replacement for iTunes (or, for that matter, Windows Media Player or any other manager you prefer). And yes, I know that every carrier and most handset makers have some sort of PC client software, generally designed to keep you from easily putting anything you want on the phone.
But somehow this feels different—like there’s an independent spirit alive in this particular marketing scheme. Am I wrong or right? Well, Alltel says it has 12 million members. If one of you is reading this, please download the software, futz around with it, and report back. Worse thing that happens is that you get stuck with 35 free MP3s and a quick uninstall. – Wilson Rothman
Alltel Wireless launches Jump Music
Free, easy-to-use software helps customers transform wireless phones into mobile music players
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.—Alltel Wireless, America’s largest network, today launched Jump Music, a free and easy-to-use software that enables customers to transfer compatible music files from personal computers to their wireless phones.
The PC-based Jump Music application gives Alltel Wireless customers greater control over their mobile music experience, empowering them to find, manage and easily transfer music files with the simple click of a button.
“For those who have been waiting for an easy way for customers to put music on their phones—Jump Music is it,” said Wade McGill, senior vice president of wireless products for Alltel. “Jump Music makes it incredibly simple for our customers to take their music with them anywhere they go, and it demonstrates our commitment to providing customers choice and control over their wireless experience.”
Jump Music, developed by strategic-creative consultancy frog design, is available for download at www.alltel.com/jumpmusic. The site features a user-friendly interface and enables customers to easily navigate to eMusic—one of the world’s largest online music stores—where they can purchase additional music from eMusic’s vast catalog of more than 2.5 million tracks in the DRM-free MP3 format. New Jump Music users will also enjoy a special introductory offer of 35 free eMusic tracks.
Jump Music is initially compatible with five Alltel phones: the LG AX8600, MOTOKRZR K1m and MOTORAZR V3m, and the Samsung u520 as well as The Wafer by Samsung.
Jump Music Accessory Kits, featuring a 256 MB memory card, USB cable and a stereo headset, are available at Alltel Wireless retail stores or online at www.shopalltel.com for just $49.99.
Alltel Wireless offers exclusive features including “My Circle,” allowing customers to choose who they call for free—any 10 numbers, any network; Anytime Plan Changes, giving customers the flexibility to change their rate plan any time, without extending their contract; and Celltop, a patent-pending technology that offers customers an easier way to access, manage and organize a wide range of information already available on their phones.
Alltel (NYSE: AT) is owner and operator of the nation’s largest wireless network and has 12 million customers. For more information about Alltel, please visit www.alltel.com
Our Zune source dropped off two more photos that claim to be the Wi-Fi firmware connecting to a base station for song downloading. Remember, these photos claim to be the new firmware running on the first-gen Zune, not the advanced Zune that was talked about earlier this week.
it’s kinda like the DS system with WIFI both subscription and points are supported, and your account is tied to your zune furthermore, once you download a song of the to go marketplace, you can then send them to other once you have synched back with your PC, copying your downloaded files back to your HD, when it becomes a normal downloaded song.
This is all rumor so far, but what do you guys think? Bonus shot after the jump.
– Jason Chen
Why not hook Mum up with some cheap VoIP for Mother’s Day?
MyNetFone ran a deal at CeBIT, but now feel compelled to share it with everyone starting midnight tonight and ending midnight Sunday. A triple threat of offers await!
1: the MNFSPA2100 adapter, for up to two phones / faxes, with QoS functions, line hunting, and Fax over IP. RRP $99, selling for $39.95 including $40 call credit.
2: VMNF100LD adapter, for one phone. RRP $99 (though I doubt anyone is still selling this one at that price), selling for $19.95, with $20 call credit.
3: You can add a Uniden XS 1214 handset to the deals above for $30, worth $49.95.
Orders can be placed online here at the deal page. -Seamus Byrne
The Senate today introduced a bill to prevent outlandish increases in net-radio royalties, a companion to the bill proposed by the House of Representatives last month. I decided to check in with Pandora’s founder Tim Westergren again to see how he and his fellow webcasters got such sudden political clout.
“Congress is calling this the grassroots campaign of the year,” he says. “Office staffers say they have never received this many emails and inquiries on any issue in their congressional careers. The whole fax infrastructure of Capitol Hill was jammed for two days.” (Ah, those crazy faxers.) If any of you doubts your ability to make a difference in DC, by all means keep reading.
Team Xtender just made an announcement today about two products coming in the next two months. The first is a half-sized Guitar Hero guitar that’s made out of wood and sized for midgets. They claim that it will be easier to carry around, but you’re not playing actual gigs with that thing.
The second is a HDMI cable for the original Xbox 360 (the non-elite version) that supports up to 1080i resolution. Sounds like it’s not really going to give you the benefits of HDMI other than the fact that you save either a VGA or a component input on your TV. Look for these in the coming two months. – Jason Chen
Image courtesy Bright Minds
Symbian Guru has the lead on previously unheard of Nokia phones, the N81 and N82, which are both supposedly launch during Q4 2007, and have some pretty fantastic specs. First, the sliding N81 will have 8GB of flash memory, N-Gage gaming, a 2-megapixel camera, quad-band EDGE and HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, and will run the Series 60 3rd Edition.
The N82, on the other hand, is a candybar phone with quad-band GSM, HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, Wi-Fi, GPS, TV-out, FM radio, microSD, front VGA camera, 5-megapixel back camera with Carl Zeiss lens and auto focus, and will also be running Series 60 3rd edition. Seeing as the specs on both these phones are so high, we wouldn’t expect it to go for anything less than what you’re seeing for the other high-end N phones. – Jason Chen
Nokia N82 Imaging KING [Symbian Guru]
Nokia N81 8GB Slider [Symbian Guru]
We’ve had lots of time to use, re-use, and digest every feature available on the Helio Ocean. We’ve done UI videos, hardware galleries, handset sharing tutorials and sync tutorials, but what you really want to know is what we think of it. Here’s our review, broken down feature by feature so you can easily see the ones that matter the most to you.
Idle Search: By far, the coolest and most useful thing on the Helio Ocean is its ability to search right off the idle homescreen. Like Spotlight on a Mac, it can search through multiple things, namely, your contact list, or any of the websites the Ocean supports: Yahoo, Google, Google Maps (using the phone’s Java version), Wikipedia, Yelp, and Amazon. If Helio is smart, they’ll let the phone do the idle search from a customizable list of websites.
Instant Messaging:The addition of the slide-out keyboard and new IM apps is fantastic, but we’re bummed by not being able to have more than one AIM account online simultaneously. You can do MSN, Yahoo and AIM at the same time, but there’s no Google Talk even though there’s a GMail app. Oh, and you can’t turn off the AIM alert sound unless you silence the entire phone.
galleryPost('heliooceanscreenshots', 12, 'Helio Ocean Complete Screenshots');
We’re not sure when Zunes got discounted, but it seems like Amazon, Circuity City and Best Buy all have all four colors of the Zune (black, white, brown, pink) for $219. They all list them as after “$30 savings”, which we suppose has been passed on down from Microsoft. Interesting, seeing as the Zune 2 rumors are just starting to heat up. – Jason Chen
Product Page [Amazon - Thanks Michael!]
Pioneer lined up its newest plasma display next to top-of-line TVs from Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Sharp today. An interesting experiment, for sure. And it got everyone in the room talking about the same thing: contrast ratios. You can see why just by looking at the image above, which shows three plasma screens with power on but no image (the Pioneer is on the lower right, the Samsung HP-T5064 is on top and the Panasonic PZ700U is on the left). None of the screens were calibrated, which would make a difference. But the reason Pioneer’s screen looks so much darker has to do with a lot more than calibration, or contrast ratio.
Consumer electronics companies love spec wars. Whether it’s processor speeds, throughput or megapixels, gadget makers like throw around big numbers that separate money from wallet. And contrast ratios are the spec war du jour. But despite claims ranging from 5,000:1 (Panasonic) all the way to 1,000,000:1 (Sony’s upcoming OLED) there is no agreed upon industry standard used for measuring contrast ratios. As a result, there are a number of tricky ways to influence the outcome of a contrast ratio test—and none of them have anything to do with the real world contrast ratio that you will experience while sitting at home…
