Hasta La Gadget!

Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg isn’t too upbeat on the future of landlines, telling the audience at a Goldman Sachs investor conference today that the company is just not interested in telephones connected with wires. The chief exec of one of the nation’s biggest telecommunications firms continued with his gospel, saying his “thinking has matured” and that trying to predict when the dwindling landline business will plateau is akin to “the dog chasing the bus.” He says the new way of thinking is “liberating,” but of course, endeavors like the Hub technically don’t count as landlines to the company since it’sVoIP, and the coupled with its continued success as the largest cellular provider in terms of subscriber base, yeah, we’re sure it’s not too tough a pill to swallow. So how abut ramping up FiOS installations just a wee bit faster, eh Ivan?

Filed under: Cellphones

Verizon CEO doesn’t care about landlines anymore, feels ‘liberated’ by new outlook originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ah, finally. Mintpass has been teasing us with its delightfully adorable Mintpad for nearly a year now, and after sending a few out to a smattering of media outlets, it fell into a holding pattern for the rest of the summer. Now, at long last, the touchscreen-based PMP is on sale over in the UK, paving the way for consumers ’round the globe to call themselves an owner. Final specifications include a 2.9-inch LCD, 4GB of internal storage, a microSD expansion slot, WiFi, 1.3 megapixel camera, support for a gaggle of file formats and a battery good for 30 hours of audio or 5 hours of video. Too bad that £139 asking price becomes $229 here in the US.

[Via PMP Today]

Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Mintpass Mintpad now on sale, as cute as ever originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A piece of computer and science fiction history will go on auction next month: An early Macintosh computer, which belonged to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.

The computer, with the serial number F4200NUM0001, was a gift to Roddenberry from Apple.

Though the computer was earlier believed to be an Macintosh Plus,  it is an is an early production Macintosh 128 (#776).

Despite the 0001 serial number, the computer is not the first one manufactured by Apple, says Profiles in History,  an auctioneer of Hollywood memorabilia, which will be taking bids for the computer.

The computer for auction has a 9-inch display, 3.5-inch floppy drive and includes the short keyboard, external floppy drive, mouse and padded carrying case with Apple logo.

“Gene Roddenberry’s vision inspired countless people to pursue careers in science and aerospace.  This milestone computer, given to Gene by Apple’s innovators, is a symbol of this synergy,” said Joe Maddalena, president of Profiles in History.

The Mac is expected to fetch between $800 to $1,200.

Photos: Profiles in History

The story has been updated to correct the information initially released by the auction house that the computer was the first Macintosh Plus manufactured by Apple.

Not content with the already generous black, white, red, or navy blue options Pentax is offering on its new K-x DSLR? Then it looks like your persistence has finally paid off for once, as Pentax has now rolled out its own Colorware-type service for the camera — in Japan, that is. That’ll let you choose from twenty different colors for the body of the camera and five for the grip (lens colors are apparently “coming soon”) and, of course, any combination of the two (like the eye-catching number we whipped up above). Best of all, it seems that the customization options are available at no extra cost, other than the hours you’ll spend agonizing over your choice of colors.

[Thanks, Rye]

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Pentax rolls its own colorware for the Pentax K-x DSLR originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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(Credit: CNET)

If the MP3 player market was a fault line, we’d have a boatload of busy seismographs on our hands. Certainly, two of the most exciting releases of the past couple weeks are the new iPod Touch and the Zune HD. Now, if you’re curious how the …

Originally posted at MP3 Insider