Hasta La Gadget!

You know how we’ve good reason to believe that Verizon Wireless is at least mulling the switch to capped / tiered data plans? Yeah. An independent Validas research report has found that, between January and May of this year (pre-AT&T caps), Verizon’s stable of smartphones collectively averaged more data consumption per month that Apple’s iPhone. Of course, this quite literally compares an Apple to every smartphone on Verizon save for BlackBerries, but given how much squalling we’ve heard from Ma Bell about this rampant iPhone data usage, we’re pleased to see a few facts that spin things the other way. The company’s full report is due out in September, but investigation of over 20,000 wireless bills found that VZW smartphones “are consuming more wireless data than AT&T iPhones by a ratio of roughly 1.25:1,” with the average Verizon user eating up 421MB per month and the average iPhone user consuming 338MB per month. It also points out that “nearly twice as many Verizon Wireless smartphone users are consuming 500MB to 1GB per month compared to AT&T iPhone users.” You learn something new everyday, right?

Continue reading Validas study finds Verizon smartphones consuming more data than iPhones

Validas study finds Verizon smartphones consuming more data than iPhones originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 09:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Validas  | Email this | Comments

Chinese company TESO has an unrequited love for all things Apple. Not that it cares, we’re sure it’s doing just fine on the grey market with its KIRFy Cupertino crafts. But maybe it’s time for this Shenzhen cloner to go mainstream with what’s purported to be a 9.7-inch tablet running “MeGoo” (a MeeGo typo, certainly) or “Andriod2.2” (that’d be Froyo) OSes on a 14-mm thick LPAD powered by Intel’s newest 1.9GHz Z600-series Moorestown processor. Of course, it’s a hell of a lot easier to list specs on paper than it is to ship highly spec’d product. And given TESO’s inability to correctly copy the names of its choosen operating systems onto a sheet of paper, what hope is there of it cloning the user experience of a class-leading tablet?

Keepin’ it real fake: TESO LPAD runs ‘MeGoo’ or ‘Andriod’ on Moorestown originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 08:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Somebody needs to make an iPhone game-pad already. The iPhone is great for games and all, but for old-school platformers and beat-’em-ups like Streetfighter IV, nothing beats having some real buttons to mash. Enter the gPod, a be-buttoned case into which you slide the iPhone. It has a d-pad, four control buttons along with select, start and a pair of shoulder-buttons. It is the perfect thing for playing old Super Nintendo games.

But we doubt you’ll ever be able to buy one. It could be easily made, we’re sure, even though the current prototype is compatible with the first-gen iPhone only, but games would have to be written to use buttons. As only a small percentage of iPhone and iPod Touch owners would have this add-on, that would be a tiny market.

I’d buy one, though, even if it only worked with jailbroken iPhones: what would be better than spending an afternoon with this and a SNES emulator full of old game ROMs? Nothing, I tell you. Nothing at all. It even makes a pretty cool-looking case.

iPhone Game Pad [CP Design via Dr. Crypt]

See Also:

• Joypad Turns iPhone into Game Controller
• Racing Game for iPad Uses iPhones as Controllers
• iPhone 3.0 Wish List: Accessory-Powered Apps We Want
• 'iFun' Turns iPhone Into Wii-Like Controller
• Wiimote-Controlled SNES Emulator on iPad
• Video: SNES for iPad, Controlled by iPhone

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

The BottleBob Bottle Cap Punch is a gimmick, a gee-gaw, a single-purpose uni-tasking tchotchke. But despite this, what it does is pretty awesome. It cuts holes in the metal caps of soda-bottles so, when you insert a regular plastic straw, it looks like you somehow punched that thing right through it, you old tough-guy you.

The plastic and metal punch also falls firmly into the category of “tat”. For those unfamiliar with this word, it comes from British English (aka “quaint” English) and has the following meaning in the New Oxford American Dictionary: “tasteless or shoddy clothes, jewelry, or ornaments”.

Still, imagine what this little widget could do for your reputation. If you can pierce a metal cap with a flimsy plastic tube, you could probably also… Well, I’ll leave that up to your imagination. $27, available now.

BottleBob Bottle Cap Punch [Epaulet Shop]

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter..

We’ve just heard directly from HTC regarding that hotly anticipated upgrade to Android 2.2: it’s happening this weekend for lucky Euroland owners of the Desire. Provided your Sense-laden 3.7-incher is not carrier-locked, you should be receiving your serving of Froyo by the end of the week, together with a new 720p video mode and iTunes sync for your music. HTC is also throwing in its App Share widget that it first introduced with the Wildfire, along with its smart Caller ID feature. Very nice, though it’s quite a shame that operator-specific versions of the update are still stuck in testing and are expected “in several weeks’ time.” Ah well, guess that’ll teach us to buy our gear unlocked.

Continue reading Official: HTC rolling out Android 2.2, 720p video, iTunes sync to unlocked Euro Desires this weekend

Official: HTC rolling out Android 2.2, 720p video, iTunes sync to unlocked Euro Desires this weekend originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 06:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments