So 5 days in with my iPhone and I can say I have a real good grasp on reality now. The hype factor has worn off so it’s all about real world usage. In part un of my review I found the iPhone to be the most gorgeous phone with the most gorgeous mobile phone screen I had ever seen. Sure there were some quirks hiding in the user interface but what about the meat and potatoes of the phone - the apps.? Hit the jump and read part deux of my uber iPhone review. (more…)

Yes I am one of the hundreds of thousands that picked up an iPhone this past weekend. I convinced myself not to get a 1st-gen product but by 7 PM Friday, I couldn’t hold out any longer thus my bank account became $600 poorer, $649.49 to be exact. So what do I think about the uber, Jesus, end-all iPhone? I can summarize in one statement; it’s all that and a bag of chips, but you feel kinda gypped because the bag is only half full. Hit the jump for the full review. (more…)

Here’s the first non-rendered photo of a real iPhone clone Meizu MiniOne M8. It was posted by Meizu’s CEO Jack Wong on Meizu’s official bulletin board, promising more pictures in “a few days.”

He also reminded us of the phone’s specs. We’re talkin’ 667 MHz ARM11 processor running Windows CE 6.0. The touchscreen measures 3.3″ with a 720 x 480 resolution. The phone will carry every freakin’ cellular antenna, WCDMA/HSDPA/GSM/EDGE, making it a true world phone, and feature WiFi and Bluetooth to boot. It even 1ups the iPhone’s camera by including a 3 megapixel sensor. Lastly, you’ll be able to choose from 3 different memory configurations; 4, 8, and 16GB.

He didn’t mention pricing but did reaffirm a late 2007 release. I gotta admit, I’m curious now.

If you happen to live in Europe and you happen to have O2 as your mobile provider, then you might like the new music centric Cocoon. The phone earns its name from the all white and rounded body. Similar to the AU NEON concept phone last year, the surface hides embedded LEDs that light up to indicate different functions. It can even be used as a clock/radio!

The Cocoon comes with 2GB of internal memory with microSD expansion, 2 megapixel camera with auto focus, all running on a 3G network.

Hit the jump for another picture.

[Via Electronista] (more…)

This is for all you gadgeteers that love convergence devices. The Brando M300 is a watch with a quadband GSM antenna built in, 60MB of internal memory, bluetooth 2.0, USB connectivity, MP3 player, and 1″ color OLED screen.

If you don’t care about text messaging and email then maybe this $305 gizmo might do you good.

[Via Ubergizmo]

Sony Ericsson just keeps pumping out new phones every 6 months. The latest group to make the cut is a foursome, Z250/320, K530, W910/960, and he K850. They’re all pretty much updates to the current crop of SE phones but manage to squeeze in EDGE and HSDPA in all save for the clamshells.

The K-series updates the current K790/800 with more internal storage, better screen and a 5 megapixel Cybershot camera. The W-series continues the Walkman branded slider design but updates with 8GB of onboard storage. The Z-series will probably be one of those free phones you get when you sign up for a service plan. Noteworthy tidbits are the 4 OLED icons that indicate waiting voicemails and messages.

K850

W910 and W960

K530

Z250 and Z320

With the increasing reliability, performance, and excellence of portable devices like cell-phones and PDAs, more and more people are finding it easier to leave home without missing important calls or emails. Skype has also improved communications by essentially allowing people to talk to others for free over the internet and even make calls to landlines and cellphones.

Recently, last100 held a poll that asked users whether they believe that Skype can or will replace today’s landlines. As always, I abstained from the poll, since all that data is sold to marketing companies and provides funding for global strike initiatives (Do you really want to help Kane?). In my opinion, Skype will never take over landlines. Cell-phones, on the other hand, have already started to replace landlines, as everyone that I know around my age can’t find a reason to get a landline, since their cellphone is always with them.

Personally, landlines are as outdated as Hilary Clinton’s views on video games, and they will probably remain that way. I don’t plan on ever getting a landline, since I use my cell-phone for all of my calls and Skype, Trillian, and Facebook to keep in touch with everybody that I know. Within a few years, landlines may even be extinct.

Wow that’s a really bad attempt at making a good title that succinctly describes this Nokia concept. It’s called the Scentsory and the whole premise revolves around, you guessed it - smells. The design is made from a flexible paper LCD material that unfolds like a paper airplane. Each contact is assigned a unique smell. The whole concept attempts to bridge the technological coldness of cell phones by using odor as an emotional conduit. It sounds cool and all but I’d hate to be in a room full of people with smell phones.

Software and industrial design house Frog Design have created a new music jukebox player for Alltel Wireless subscribers called Jump Music. It has direct compatibility with eMusic and like iTunes and iPod, will keep your music synced with your Alltel phone. Kinda ironic since Frog Design once designed Apple products during Steve Jobs’ ousting. It’s also kinda ironic that Alltel would go thru all this trouble for all 4 of its customers. Okay okay, I’m being mean - all 8 of their customers.

[Via Crunch Gear]

Looks like Opera Mobile is about to get some competition from everybody’s favorite anti-explorer browser, Firefox. Head boss of Mozilla Mitchell Baker told the peeps at APC magazine they’ve been working on a mobile version for quite some time. When asked about release, Baker was quick to say it was a long term project. She also promised ubiquity between the desktop and mobile versions of Firefox, both fully compatible with all add ons and plug-ins.

Hey as long as it stays free, I’m in.

[Via APC]