Hasta La Gadget!

Apple’s doing it. RIM’s doing it. Google’s doing it. Heck, even Microsoft might be doing it. As the peer pressure mounts, Palm has finally decided to cave and introduce its very own applications market place, which is simply being christened Software Store. Oddly, it looks as if Palm farmed out the production of said store to one PocketGear, but we’re assured that the app will hum along just fine on over 25 Windows Mobile / Palm OS-based Palm devices. Available for download as we speak, it offers up over 5,000 apps and games, 1,000 of which are completely free. Hmm, we wonder if Palm’s keeping a Nova-compatible version in its back pocket?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: Palm pinged us to say that this is actually the very same software store that has been around, it’s just a sweet looking veneer to make accessing it easier.

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm introduces Software Store for WinMo / Palm OS devices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Dec 2008 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It might not have the cachet of the iPhone, but the sheer ubiquity of Motorola’s hate-it-or-hate-it RAZR means it has achieved an altogether higher form of immortality. It has been made into a toy for babies.

Here we see the plastic representation of Moto’s iconic, hard-to-use clamshell handset. It has all the features needed to entertain an eighteen-month-old: chewy plastic corners, annoying sounds (just like the real thing!) and a rubberized, spittle-proof keypad.

In fact, this toy is so suited to the partially developed human that BoingBoingGadget’s John Brownlee, who visited my temporary Berlin apartment last night to beg for companionship (it appears that even his paedokeet pet, Humbert Humbird, has grown tired of him) dropped his iPhone and picked up the Baby RAZR.

"I can’t believe you still use one of these," he scoffed, brandishing his (old, first-gen) iPhone. "You’re a professional gadget blogger," he continued, "you should be setting an example!"

Ah, the irony. I believe Brownlee returned to his lonely home still chuckling, unaware that the toy was in fact a toy. A toy that, incidentally, doesn’t even fool its owner, a real baby that only two days ago mistook the Lady’s furry hat for a potty and attempted to make a deposit.

Price, unknown. Availability: your local dime-store. More pictures below.

The front view, complete with fake camera.

The back. John Brownlee’s teethmarks can be clearly seen.

This screen changes as you tilt it, offering blurry images. The screen is in fact the only place where the toy fails to beat the original RAZR.

After the initial reports that the  Mac mini was being killed off a new version is rumoured to be appearing at MacWorld 2009 according to Gadget Lab:

Apple will launch an upgrade to its low-end desktop, the Mac Mini, at January’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco, according to an Apple corporate employee who contacted Wired.com.

The source, who wished to remain anonymous (to keep his job), could not disclose details about the Mac Mini other than its upcoming announcement at Macworld Expo, which begins Jan. 5.

Wired is backing this info but is unable to bolster it with any other good solid follow-up meat.

A guesstimate on the specs include the likes of an aluminum brick design (in a desktop? why?), DisplayPort, and 4GB of RAM maximum, with 2.0-GHz Core 2 Duo and a 2.3-GHz Core 2 Duo.

Have you heard anything about this?

Let me know

Wired

Well this has been a long time coming. It seems that the iPhone Dev-Team has finally done the impossible — they’ve gone and unlocked the iPhone 3G. The hack isn’t out yet (the team says they’re shooting for a December 31st release), and it requires that you’ve got a baseband of 2.11.07 or earlier, but when it drops, the crew seems fairly confident it will result in freedom from carrier oppression. The team is packaging the app — formerly codenamed “yellowsn0w” — into a user-friendly app a la PwnageTool and QuickPwn. Of course, you know how this cat and mouse game goes by now, so don’t be surprised when Jobs and company come calling with an update that adds toast making to the official menu, but breaks your breaks all over again.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Cellphones

iPhone 3G finally unlocked by the Dev-Team! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last week, Energizer outed their Zinc Air Prismatic batteries, and now we hear of a possibly more promising AA nickel-zinc rechargeable battery from PowerGenix. It appears that zinc will be our new battery overlord.

PowerGenix will team with Ritz Camera to begin selling AA Quantaray Super Z NiZn rechargeable batteries. These batteries promise 30% more voltage over rechargeables of a a similar form, which puts their performance on par with single-use batteries. Plus, their NiZn technology is non toxic and claims to be the “most recyclable rechargeable chemistry on the market.”

In other words, there may finally be no excuse to ever normal batteries again (if you still had one)—but we’ll be eager to see how well they work when they hit Ritz at an undisclosed price/date. [Engadget via FastCompany]