Hasta La Gadget!

It’ll probably be subject to an additional fee as usual, but Verizon and Apple have just revealed that the new CDMA iPhone 4 will act as a mobile WiFi connection for up to five devices. It’ll come with an iOS-specific version of the Verizon 3G Mobile Hotspot that folks have been enjoying on their Droids for many moons now. That should allowing for laptops, tablets and the like to get online via iPhone without a pesky cord, and almost certainly make the long-verboten iPhone – iPad tethering connection finally attainable. Joy to the world!

Update: Verizon called it an app, but getting hands-on we can see that’s not the case at all — Personal Hotspot is built right into the CDMA iPhone 4’s build of iOS 4.2.5. Perhaps we’ll see it migrate to other devices as well?

Verizon iPhone 4 will have 3G mobile hotspot (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 11:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve waited and waited, and now Apple and Verizon have made a million dreams come true: the iPhone is coming to Big Red. After talking up his new LTE network a bit, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam confirmed a CDMA (non-LTE) version of the iPhone 4 is coming to Verizon Wireless next month. Talks started way back in 2008, and the phone has been in testing for a year — it sounds like they wanted to get this one right. Current Verizon customers will be able to pre-order on Feburary 3rd for the standard $200 price for the 16GB model on a two year agreement, $300 for the 32GB version — everyone else can order on February 10th (see it compared with AT&T’s iPhone 4). Just to clarify and put any wild rumors to bed, the phone is Verizon 3G (EV-DO) only, no 4G data or GSM roaming. It’s not a world phone or an AT&T + Verizon phone, it’s just a Verizon phone.

Outside of Verizon connectivity, the phone is basically unchanged, although Verizon’s CDMA network doesn’t support simultaneous voice and data as with the GSM version. It does have the new antenna design we were hearing about last week, but that’s just because CMDA requires a different configuration of antennas. (Apple says they didn’t go LTE just yet because first-gen chipsets would force unwanted design decisions, and customers want a Verizon device now.) That slight modification also equates to a slight bump in where the volume buttons and mute switch — a new case might be required. Software-wise the big innovation is five user WiFi hotspot functionality, something that’s standard on Android phones, while Apple has kept the iPhone only able to tether directly to one computer.

Check out our full hands-on with the Verizon iPhone right here, and stay tuned — we’ve got lots more coming up.

Continue reading The Verizon iPhone

The Verizon iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 11:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Olympus PENpal is a Bluetooth widget that beams photos from your camera to your computer. It slides into the accessory shoe on the top of the Olympus PEN E-PL2 camera and is controlled by the camera itself.

This ingenious dongle integrates with the camera’s own menus, and sends images to any device compatible with Bluetooth file transfers (which counts out the iPhone and iPad, as we noted in our full review of the E-PL2). It works like this: Browse your photos on the camera’s screen as usual and then hit the menu button. From here, choose the “Send a Picture” option and you’re done. The photo will appear on your computer a few moments later.

The PENpal will also resize photos before sending. Depending on your settings, it will shrink pictures to 1280 x 960, 1920 x 1440 or 640 x 480, and can store up to 2,600 pictures in its own memory.

This seems like an ideal solution for crappy cellphone cameras. You can take a snap with a proper camera and then send it to your phone for editing and uploading, letting both devices do what they’re good at. This seems to be a trend in consumer electronics in general: We’re moving away from convergence and the do-everything machines that entails, and coming to small ecosystems of networked devices. Camera, computer and tablet are all beginning to talk to each other.

It’s just a shame that this won’t work with the iPad, which really needs a camera, and that it is Olympus-only. At least it’s cheap, though, at just $80.

Olympus PENpal [Olympus via Derek Story]

See Also:

• Looxcie, A Futuristic Wearable Bluetooth Camcorder
• Siemens Bluetooth Box Beams Music Direct to Hearing Aids
• Olympus Pen EP-2, Now in Retro-Tastic Silver
• New Olympus Pen Adds Flash, Loses Good Looks

If they ever make a King of Kong sequel, it may well star Hank Chien. The New York-based plastic surgeon has just recaptured the Donkey Kong record, nabbing 1,068,000 points, beating out recent records captured by Steve Wiebe (1,064,500) and Billy Mitchell (1,062,800), stars of the terrific 2007 documentary on the subject.

“Billy Mitchell’s score was announced on my birthday,” Chien told classic game score keeper, Twin Galaxies in a post-record inteview. “I also knew Steve Wiebe was trying over the summer but heard he was having some vertigo issues. When the summer was over, I thought the vertigo had gotten the best of him and was surprised when it was announced in September. I knew the score was still within my reach.”

Mitchell’s own response upon recapturing the record back in August was, well, typical Billy Mitchell, “Some say I’m being cocky. Some say I’m being lazy. I say, I’m being Billy Mitchell.”

Apple’s iPhone could cost Verizon up to $5 billion in the first year of availability, due to subsidies, reports claim.

Originally posted at The Digital Home