Gizmodo Australia » mobile

Mystery HTC Android Phone Appears, Discloses Nothing

Jack Loftus — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:20:00 +0000

An HTC Android phone popped up today, offering few clues—aside from a few hastily snapped pics—about what it’s called, what it does, or what it wants.

Touch sensitive menu keys? Check.

And there’s our pal Android, and a camera of indeterminable mega pixelage. [The Unlockr via BGR]

Virgin Launches Mobile Wi-Fi Modem

Nick Broughall — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:30:14 +0000

Imagine this: you’re part of a highly trained squad of three former SAS soldiers on a mission critical to the survival of this country. We’re talking top secret. Classified. You get to the rendezvous point in a regional centre of NSW, pull out your military-grade laptop to connect to the Internet to perform your mission. Your two soldier buddies do the same thing. You reach into your bag to pull out your wireless internet key, but there’s nothing there. You look to your squad members and realise that due to budget cuts, only mobile broadband solution was issued. Which means your mission fails and the terrorists win. If only you had a Virgin Mobile Wi-Fi modem…

The Mobile Wi-Fi modem runs off a rechargeable Lithium battery, and allows three different devices to connect to it over 802.11b/g. It has a range of about 15 metres, and weighs 90 grams. There’s also a MicroSD slot to offer up to 32GB of storage. It runs on both Optus’ 900MHz and 2100MHz bands.

Starter packs for the Wi-Fi modem will run at $199 from Dick Smith, which includes the modem and 1GB, although apparently that data is only for a limited time. It’ll hit other major retailers in December.

Mobile Web Finally Easy Enough For Old People, Females, Teens

Jason Chen — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0000

Nielsen’s mobile web statistics show that, from July 2008 to July 2009, the demographic groups of 65+, female and 13-17 showed the most usage growth. The least? 18-24 year olds, who are all up in this mobile web already.

Also equally interesting: we have more male readers than the NFL, the NBA or even MAXIM. More women look at softcore boobies than look at gadgets! [Nielsen]

Sony Ericcson. Satio. Symbian. Synergy?

Chris Oaten — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:28:09 +0000

Sony Ericsson has just ~~announced~~ released Satio, a handset designed to deliver the “ultimate” multimedia and communications experience. Our quotes, not theirs.

Satio is the first Sony Ericsson handset to be based on the open platform Symbian Foundation operating system, so users can download and install new applications and content straight to their mobile handset. Looks like Sony Ericsson has cottoned on to this whole “app” concept.

What’s it got? A 12.1MP camera, touch features, Xenon flash, 3.5-inch 16:9 screen, ninth High Definition (nHD) gaming, and “mobile High Definition TV experience”. Huh?

It lands early November with an RRP of $1199.

The Iropod Desk Is A Mobile Computer IV Injection

Sean Fallon — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:20:00 +0000

You know those mobile IV stands you see people clutching to in hospitals? Well, the iropod or “Interactive Robotic Pod” is kind of like that, but it’s for another kind of disease — computer addiction.

Oddly enough, the iropod doesn’t involve a laptop — the computer is built-in to the frame with a power source that the manufacturer claims has as much juice as a car battery. It also appears that the frame can be adjusted to accommodate different seated or standing positions or for easier storage. Details like specs and pricing have not been announced, but word is that the iropot will debut sometime between now and the end of September. However, if it is a mobile workstation you are after, I strongly urge you to consider something a bit more practical. [iropod via Engadget]

Roadmap For Intel’s First Nehalem-Based Mobile Chips Leaked

Dan Nosowitz — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:20:00 +0000

Details for Intel’s new quad- and dual-core i7 and i5 chips have leaked in the form of a roadmap, so we’ve got some excellent specifics, including release dates and prices.

The new quad-core “Clarksfield” chips are the most expensive and powerful, and will be able to scale up clock speed with a feature called “Turbo Boost” that shuts down cores that aren’t being used. They’ll come in 1.6, 1.73 and 2.0GHz models, scalable to 2.8, 3.06, and 3.2GHZ, respectively. They’ll be pretty pricey at $US340, $US750 and $US1,000. The dual-core chips are significantly cheaper but at the expense of cache size. The quad-cores should be arriving this fall, with the first of the dual-cores hitting in early 2010. Check out the image for more details. [PC Watch (translated) via Electronista]

Amazon Won’t Let Mobile Apps Use Its Product Info Anymore

Matt Buchanan — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:40:00 +0000

Weird play by Amazon—they’ve changed their Product Advertising API so that mobile apps like Delicious Library, which pull product info from it, can’t use it. Its developers were forced to pull it from the App Store.

Delicious Library developer Wil Shipley did ask for permission, but Amazon told him to yank the app or they’d shut him down themselves. So if you never got around to grabbing it, you’re out of luck. And it is specifically on the mobile side that they’re being prickly:

You will not, without our express prior written approval requested via this link , use any Product Advertising Content on or in connection with any site or application designed or intended for use with a mobile phone or other handheld device.

The only rational explanation—insofar as there is one here—is that they want people to use Amazon’s own mobile apps to access their data and check out products, which, in a way, goes along how they’re pushing Kindle as software on multiple platforms. (Software is important to them now, rather than being a dumb data provider, in other words.) I guess they think you’re more likely to buy stuff from Amazon while you’re poking around in their apps. [Alan Quatermain via Twitter via TechCrunch]

Internode Increases Its Data Quotas For Wireless Broadband

Nick Broughall — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:33 +0000

Just over a month after launching their 3G broadband service running off the back of Optus, Internode has boosted the data limits for its customers. The entry level plan has doubled the amount of data from 250MB to 500MB per month for $14.95, while the 3GB $40 plan has been boosted to 5GB of data. That brings the network in line with what the likes of Vodafone and Optus are offering, which can only be a good thing for customers. Huzzah’s all around!

[Internode]

Skyfire Leaves Beta, Steals Windows Mobile Browsing Crown

John Herrman — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Skyfire, the server-compressed mobile browser that promises “the full web,” i.e. Flash support, on Windows Mobile and Symbian phones, has graduated from its excruciatingly long testing period. In a word, it’s great.

Windows Mobile 7 May Get Gesture Controls After All

Jason Chen — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:00:00 +0000

There was some question about whether or not Windows Mobile 7 may get those gestures we first saw a long, long time ago, but Mary-J has some slides that point to good news.

Although the slides are two years old, the info in them coincide with recent reveals, such as Zune HD mockups and Windows Mobile devices interacting with other home devices, like PCs and TVs. Thus, she connects the dots and assumes the other stuff on the slides—the motion stuff—are also going to be in Windows Mobile 7.

It’s not a whole lot of concrete proof, but gesturing to control your phone may be pretty cool, provided Microsoft gets it right. [ZDNet]