Hasta La Gadget!

(Credit: Matt Hickey)

There are a ton of rumors flying around right now saying that Microsoft just might introduce a Zune-ified competitor to the iPhone at CES next month. There are also those who call that a ridiculous notion. I happen, to a degree, to agree with both sides.

You won’t see it at CES, but new a mobile phone initiative is brewing at Microsoft right now, and the Zune team is involved.

I live in Seattle. I run with the Microsoft/Amazon/Real/Whatever circle of geeks in the area. Sadly, because I’m a technology journalist, this means that when I run into them at parties they often have to clam up. I was, though, fortunate enough to have a sneak peek at a prototype Zune more than two years ago before anyone knew what it would look like or do. I was also lucky enough to snap a shot of it with my Treo. This became the first public photo of the device. It was black and white and wrapped in its own headphones, you might remember it. You could say I broke the Zune. I thus love the Zune. I pay close attention to what the Zune teams are doing. I listen to the Zune rumors. I have my ear to the Zune ground.

And I can tell you this: There will be a cellular communications device with Zune-like features in the near future.

…

(Credit: Jobo)

You know it’s bad when the most exciting thing about a product is that it comes with a remote control. However, to be fair to Jobo AG and its PDJ077 digital photo frame, most sub-$100 7-inch displays don’t include a remote. Or support for CF …

We heard a good while back that the WiFi-loving BlackBerry Curve 8320 would be making its way to AT&T, and here it is. The stunningly conservative Sapphire Blue shade might draw you in if the WiFi enhancement wasn’t enough to convince you to upgrade from your 8300. Of course, this is all a bit less enticing now that options like the Bold (and the likely arrival of the 8900) exist, but hey — better late than never, right? It’s going for $149.99 with a two-year contract and a mail-in rebate, or $399.99 if you’re just dying to pay full retail and have stacks and stacks of cash lying around.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

AT&T rolls out BlackBerry Curve 8320 at long last originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to speculation by Ezra Gottheil of Technology Business Research, Apple will announce a netbook at Macworld. His vision is one of a computer platform supporting the App Store:

[The device] will provide Web access, email, media playing, and essential applications at a single low price. Computer beginners will be able to start using it quickly and easily. Users will have fewer questions, problems, conflicts and security breaches, as the device will be less intimidating than both PCs and Macs. As with the iPhone, iTunes and the App Store will offer an array of content, applications and games. As with the iPhone, the software can be rebuilt from the App Store. With an optional online backup service, the entire device can be restored…. Because all applications are delivered through the iTunes App Store, Apple will maintain sustained relationships with users, making it easier to upsell and cross-sell to existing customers.

It’s an interesting, be it Utopian, vision of a future Apple product. And the idea makes sense from a platform perspective—Apple could do for computer software what iTunes has done for music and iPhone apps already.

But where Gottheil’s argument is particularly convincing is the point where he conveniently (and intelligently) abandons any discussion of form factor. Because it’s hard to imagine Apple developing any laptop under 12 inches. And while the oversized iPhone/iPod touch tablet idea sounds pretty great at first, such a product seems to outgrow netbook category once you factor in the costs (both in price and power draw) associated with a large multi-touch screen.

Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski is quick to evoke the words of Jobs himself from October’s iPod event:

There are some customers which we chose not to serve. We don’t know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not let us ship that.

Gottheil’s reconciliation with that point? He thinks the computer will run you $599.

Given iSupply’s $173 manufacturing price estimate of the 8GB iPhone 3G, maybe a $599 8ish-inch “Netbook touch” isn’t technically insane..but it’s hard to imagine given Apple’s preference for high profit margins. [Digital Daily]

A team of hackers announced Tuesday that it has unlocked the iPhone 3G.

Codenamed
"yellowsn0w," the hack will enable the iPhone 3G to work with 3G
networks other than those sanctioned by Apple. (For example, the unlock hack would make the iPhone 3G work on the T-Mobile network in the United States.) The iPhone Dev-Team,
famous for unlocking the original iPhone, said the hack will be ready
for release by Dec. 31.

This, of course, will undoubtedly lead
to another game of cat and mouse. When the Dev-Team unlocked the first
iPhone in 2007, Apple released software updates that effectively
bricked (i.e., rendered useless) any unlocked handset. 

"It’s
a cat-and-mouse game," said Jobs, when asked about unlocked iPhones in November 2007. "We try to stay ahead. People will
try to break in, and it’s our job to stop them breaking in."

It should be clarified that "Jailbreaking" the iPhone is not the same
as unlocking it — though there is some confusion over this term. The
term Jailbreak refers to a process that hacks the iPhone to run
unauthorized software — apps that likely would never be approved in
Apple’s iPhone App Store. The iPhone Dev-Team released the Jailbreak tool for iPhone 3G — called Pwnage 2.0 — just days after the iPhone 3G’s launch in July.

‘Tis the Season to be Jolly! – yellowsn0w [iPhone Dev-Team via Engadget ]

Photo: dfarber/Flickr