Here’s a sneak peek of the latest BMW M3 that will be launched in 2009. Notice the bumpers, lights and interiors that look much better and less awkward than their previous ones. Expect this on the roads soon
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Samsung has dropped the Samsung i740 GPS-ready smartphone in Ukraine a couple days ago, and this slider handset are running under Windows Mobile 6.1 OS. The highlight features include a 3.2 megapixel camera, a 2.8-inch QVGA display. optical joystick, tri-band GSM network support (no 3G, sorry..), USB and Bluetooth connectivity, 150MB of internal memory but equips microSD card slot for expansion, and integrated FM radio. The prices are going around 285 Euro.
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by Nilay Patel, posted Jul 30th 2008 at 1:17AM
DeviceVM’s SplashTop “instant-on” OS is based on Linux, even though it’s locked down to only run IM, Skype, media software, and Firefox, and you know what that means — it’s already been hacked wide open. Yep, the clever kids at the Phoronix forums have managed to open up the BIOS-based OS and make it do all kinds of tricks, including run other programs and boot other machines off a flash drive. The hacks are still a little complex, but with ASUS shipping tons of ExpressGate-enabled mobos and laptops and HP’s support in the Voodoo Envy 133, we’d there’s a one-click unlocker in the wild fairly soon. Anyone brave enough to install it on their machines?

[Thanks, george85]

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We’ve been waiting for months and months for this device. It’s been quite the cornucopia of rumors, codenames, and speculation. What once was thought to be the Style 2, then the Sidekick Aspen, or maybe the Sidekick Gekko, is officially here, and it’s going by the name of the Sidekick 2008. Yeah, we realize that 2008 is already half over too. We’re not sure why T-Mobile decided to go with an annual naming scheme this time, but as history shows, they can’t decide on a naming convention. Regardless, we’re here today to talk about the Sidekick 2008 *coughgekkocough*. We’re pretty impressed with a device that we had low expectations for. Sure, it’s not a major jump, but it certainly is a nice little device with all the familiar features that Danger does well. It’s a good upgrade candidate for anyone not yet carrying an LX or Slide, as it’s not a ridiculously expensive phone. That being said, let’s jump into the details.

(If you’re not much of a reader, check out our Sidekick 2008 Video Hands-On as well as the 2 full pages of our Sidekick 2008 Unboxing Gallery)

The Bad News
Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat. The Sidekick 2008 is not 3G. It’s on the slower EDGE network like the other recent Sidekicks. Those of you still waiting for a super fast Sidekick 3G will just have to keep waiting. If that’s a deal-breaker for you, then you may not want to waste your time with the rest of this review.

Screen
One of the most important aspects of the Sidekick is the screen and its familiar flip. It’s still here. The screen on the Sidekick 2008 is the same high resolution (400×240 WQVGA) as the Sidekick LX, but it is a bit smaller in size (2.6″ instead of 3″). This actually results in crisper images and much nicer web browsing and picture viewing on the device. You don’t have as big of a picture, but for most of the things you use a Sidekick for, you won’t even notice. Plus you shave off a tiny bit of weight and size. Screen gets a thumbs up.

Keyboard & Buttons
The keyboard on the Sidekick 2008 is very similar to the Sidekick LX. However the keys are ever so slightly smaller, but typing on it is still as easy as ever. That’s one thing that no phone on the market has been able to compete with, the Sidekick’s keyboard. I was a bit concerned with the keyboard size at first, but it hasn’t been too much of an issue. It just might take some getting used to.

Weight
One of the things I noticed about the 2008 instantly was that it was significantly lighter than the other Sidekicks. As I was carrying it around I sometimes completely forgot that it was in my pocket. I broke out the scale to get some real world measurements and found that it weighed 4.8oz, the same as the new iphone 3G. Compare this with 5.7oz for the LX, 6.4oz for the Sidekick 3, 6.49oz for the Sidekick II, and a whopping 7.0oz for a Color Sidekick. If you’re still using a Color Sidekick, it’s time to upgrade.

Shells
One of the biggest selling points of the Sidekick 2008 is shells. These simple pieces of plastic are what can turn your phone from ordinary into something flashy and fashionable. T-Mobile will be selling all sorts of standard shells, in a typical range of colors. The device we got our hands on came with a yellow-green shell (like we’ve been seeing in all the Sidekick Gekko graphics) as well as a more subtle black one. The small parts of the device that aren’t covered by the shell (the screen frame, keyboard, and buttons) are a nice simple black as well. Yes, that’s right, right out of the box all you goth kids can finally have a black Sidekick without having to customize it. T-Mobile is also going to have a site where you can create your own shells, share them with others, and buy these custom shells. The shells are going to be created by Skinit.com and we hope they’ll be as nice of quality as the shells that come with the device. We’re also eager to see what sort of shell + custom theme combos people do with their devices. Maybe if T-Mobile doesn’t have a contest, we’ll throw one. Pricing for the shells from T-Mobile is $14.99 for two for $9.99 each.

Camera
The camera is not a huge jump in quality, but it’s something. It’s a new 2.0 megapixel camera and it seems to get pretty good quality photos in good light. The camera takes images at a resolution as high as 1600×1200, but does’nt have a flash like the LX. Here are a few pics we snapped with the 2008:

The camera is slightly better, but you’re still stuck recording video in postage-stamp size 176×144 pixels. It’s handy for sending a quick video message to a friend, but don’t expect to record the championship basketball game you went to with the Sidekick. We took a quick little video: Video taken with the Sidekick 2008

Operating System
The Sidekick 2008 ships with Danger OS 4.7, a slight bump up from the current OS for the Sidekick LX. The OS is virtually identical (we haven’t found any differences yet) to what is on the Sideick LX after the long-awaited video OTA update brings you to v4.6. Just like the Sidekick LX, the Sidekick 2008 also has video playback as well as recording. The Sidekick 2008 has the newer browser that has full page mode as well as a device-optimized mode for viewing web pages. You’ll want to use the full page mode if you want a more “true to original design” web browsing experience, and the device-optimized mode for stripped down and quick web browsing. Oh, and remember that annoying flying icons bug if you had a custom theme and the MySpace app installed? It’s finally fixed. A huge thank you to the developer at Danger/Microsoft that took the time to fix a tiny, yet annoying detail like this.

Price
We’re hearing from T-Mobile that the Sidekick 2008 isn’t going to break the bank and will be available for $149.99 with a 2 year contract. This isn’t the cheapest phone out there, but it’s definitely appealing to get the Sidekick LX features without paying several hundred dollars. The price for the phone without a contract extension will be a bit more for those that don’t want to lock into another 2 years. No official word on this price, but the leaked info from Best Buy makes us think $299.

Accessories
In the box you’ll get the typical array of accessories. The new charger is well designed, with a plug that flips out when needed. You’ll also get a stereo wired headset/mic, but we bet almost everyone will be picking up Bluetooth headsets since you can now listen to music over them with A2DP now. Two shells are included, a yellow-green one and a plain black one. Once T-Mobile gets the shells site up and running we should see the available options for shells explode.

Conclusion
I like the Sidekick Gekko. It’s not a groundbreaking phone, but it’s a nice daily-use communication device. I’ve been recommending it to friends who are still limping along with a Sidekick II, or an older device. Danger still owns the mobile device instant messaging trophy, as well as the “Best Keyboard” award. If you have any questions, please drop them in the comments below and we’ll do our best to answer them in one post in the near future. Also, we’re curious to see who’s going to pick up this phone:

Getting a Sidekick 2008?

• I’m upgrading from the Sidekick LX (30%, 53 Votes)
• I’m upgrading from the Sidekick 3 (25%, 45 Votes)
• This will be my first Sidekick! (17%, 30 Votes)
• Other (specify in comments) (10%, 17 Votes)
• I’m upgrading from the Sidekick iD (9%, 16 Votes)
• I’m upgrading from the Sidekick Slide (7%, 13 Votes)
• I’m upgrading from an earlier Sidekick (2%, 3 Votes)

Total Voters: 177

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It’s a done deal. XM and Sirius wasted very little time in completing the merger of the two satellite radio companies. We reported that the FCC finally cleared the merger on Friday after the two companies came to a compromise with the FCC over fines and violations as a result of equipment. XM and Sirius received clearance from the Justice Department back in March of this year.

On Tuesday, the companies reported the completion of the merger and disclosed the name of the new company which will be Sirius XM Radio Inc. They will trade on the NASDAQ under the symbol “SIRI” and as a result of the merger, current XM Radio shareholders will receive 4.6 shares of Sirius stock for each share of XM they hold.

Sirius XM Radio Inc. will have a combined subscriber roll of 18.5 million subscribers and sports an annualized second quarter revenue of US$2.4 billion. As promised, the newly combined company will offer two a la carte options to subscribers for the first time in addition to other programming packages. The two companies had promised these options if the merger was cleared by federal regulators back in July of last year, and they hope to begin offering some of the new packages as early as the fall.

Read more at the Sirius XM Radio press release.

Brian’s Opinion
Boy, you have to hand it to the executives at XM Radio and Sirius. The two companies no doubt had their hand on the trigger so that as soon as they received approval from the FCC they were ready to complete the merger. I can’t really blame them for moving so quickly after Friday’s vote.

After all, the merger between XM and Sirius has caught all sorts of political heat, especially from those politicians who are near and dear to the hearts of terrestrial radio broadcasters. Ironically, those broadcasters accused the merger of creating a monopoly when in actuality what it did was increase compeition in the general radio market; which includes terrestrial radio.

In my view, it was terrestrial radio broadcasters and the politicians who were connected to their purse strings that were acting anti-competitively. Clearly, a unified satellite radio company would create more of a threat in the radio market. It’s kind of funny to think that radio channels who offer their programming for free would be so concerned over a subscription service. You would have thought terrestrial radio would be confident with the edge they already have when it comes to pricing.

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This new Casio GzOne is a definite guy’s guy phone, for those men who love to climb rocks and do other extreme sports.  I mean, look at it, you can dip it in water, for crying out loud!  Fortunately, it has a shock, dust, and water resistant frame. 

Its features are many, including a 1.3-megapixel camera as well as a microSD memory SD slot.  Other features include V CAST Music and a music player.  For the supreme outdoorsman, there are some other cool features including a GPS, digital compass, as well as an LED lantern. 

You know what is really funny about this?  It is clearly made for the outdoorsman, but one can only hope that there is reception where he (or she) is. 

The GzOne Boulder is available in black or orange, and can be purchased for $129.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a two year customer agreement. 

Via [ubergizmo]

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The folks at BestofMedia, the parent company of TomsHardware have set a new overclocking world record by pushing a Core 2 Quad Q6600 (65nm) normally running at 2.4Ghz to 5.11218Ghz, which is a new record. They have been using liquid nitrogen cooling (-41°C) and have spend a fair amount of time finding the best voltage setting. Multipliers details here. Video from bestofmedia. This setup is not practical for a real-life use, but you should know that overclockers have pushed the Q6600 to 3.5Ghz or even 4Ghz for a real-world usage. Do it at your own risk, of course…

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Samsung knows that video recording is an ever growing market, and announced a new platform for camcorders which will bring benefits such as enhanced video quality, recording times, and battery life. Of course, it remains to be seen just how far reaching the impact of this new platform will be, but the Korean firm is first off the blocks to apply the H.264 Codec on Standard Definition camcorders. It will support multiple CODECs ranging from MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 to H.264. Recording times are said to improve alongside video quality by virtue of doubling the already high compression ratio. This new platform will also make life easier for folks who want to transfer recorded memories onto other H.264-compatible portable media players without the need to transcode files. The Samsung MX-20 will be the first camcorder that will feature this new platform as it is released this August.

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The creators of a Scrabble knockoff responsible for countless hours at the online hangout Facebook suspended their word game Tuesday after being hit with a lawsuit, disappointing fans who logged on expecting to make their next moves. Hasbro Inc. the company that owns the North America rights to the game sued the Agarwalla brothers in Calcutta, India who created the game. In a statement, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla said that they have blocked Scrabulous in the United States and Canada in deference to Facebook’s concerns while continuing to pursue their legal defense. A Facebook user said that she had no sympathy for Hasbro despite its rights to the game further saying that she was shocked and annoyed. The game still works at the developers’ website Scrabulous.com, but users must sign up and start games afresh.

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by Donald Melanson, posted Jul 29th 2008 at 5:32PM
While it seems inevitable that external 2.5-inch hard drives can only get so small, right now manufacturers look to be intent on doing their best to shave off every last excess millimeter to lay claim to the elusive title of world’s smallest. That designation now appears to have fallen on Freecom’s new Mobile Drive XXS which, according to the company, is not only 27% smaller than its nearest competitor but, at just 155 grams, the lightest drive of its kind around as well. You’ll still get the usual choices of 160GB, 250GB, or 320GB sizes though, along with the requisite bus-powered connectivity, and a handy form-fitting rubber sleeve to ensure the thing stays where you want it. Look for this one to hit the UK any day now for £45, £60, or £80 (or $90 to $160), depending on the capacity.

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