Æsir’s Yves Béhar-designed phone starts at just €7,250, plenty left for mortgage on the summer home

Okay, okay, €7,250 (about $10,150) sounds positively exorbitant for a phone with a microscopic 2-inch display that dares to boast of “200 calendar entries” as a “feature,” but hear us out — that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the €42,000 ($58,800) you’ll pay for the gilded version. That’s right: for €7,250 you get nothing more than common stainless steel coating the front and rear of your Æsir Yves Béhar, the latest entry in the long-running luxury phone trend that includes Mobiado, Gresso, and Nokia subsidiary Vertu, among others. As the name implies, the phone — which, we’ll admit, is pretty gorgeous — was penned by none other than famed designer Yves Béhar… but then again, so is the $200 Jawbone Jambox. Six of one, half-dozen of the other, right? Look for it to ship around the world in the summer and fall.

Æsir’s Yves Béhar-designed phone starts at just €7,250, plenty left for mortgage on the summer home originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Designer wants hand with hands-free iPad stand

San Francisco-based designer Seth Quest needs help. In return, he’ll help you solve what he thinks is a common problem with the iPad–how to use it hands-free.

Originally posted at iPad Atlas

Nokia Windows Phone Handsets Won’t Be Available Until 2012

A stylish, colorful Nokia Windows Phone concept

Don’t hold your breath waiting for a Windows-powered Nokia.

According to the managing director of Nokia India, D. Shivakumar, Nokia is working on a 12 month timeline to release its first set of Windows Phone smartphones.

A 2012 release date likely means that the handsets would run the next version of Windows Phone 7, aka Mango, which is supposed to be made available to manufacturers in late 2011.

According to Shivakumar, the Nokia-Microsoft partnership should bring new life to the fledgling smartphone OS, which made up only 3% of total wordwide smartphone sales at the end of 2010. Nokia’s flailing Symbian smartphones held a strong 31% of the global market that same quarter.

“Microsoft has been looking for a strong hardware partner, but they have been on phones [platforms] which have not given them that strength. With Nokia, suddenly the scales are huge.”

In February, Nokia announced it would be teaming up with Microsoft to “transform the company.” The move meant that Nokia would be abandoning Symbian in favor of Windows Phone 7 and future Windows Phone installments, much to the chagrin of its developers.

Nokia still plans to release about 20 Symbian smartphones in 2011 out of the 40-50 total new models it’ll be launching.

The Finnish company plans to follow a two-year time frame to complete the transition to Windows Phone-only handsets.

In the mean time, Nokia has redirected its primary business strategy to reach the 3.2 billion people who don’t currently own mobile phones, and the other nearly 3 million who can’t or don’t access the Internet on their devices, while Apple and other smartphone manufacturers vie for the high-end spectrum of tech power users.

Nokia’s First Windows Phone to be Released in a Year [DNA via Slashgear]


Trackside in the Chevrolet Volt

We didn’t expect the Chevrolet Volt to show up at a recent track day, but we didn’t waste an opportunity to drive it when it did.

Originally posted at The Car Tech blog

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer passes through the FCC

Well, it hasn’t reached Eee PC levels of confusion just yet, but it looks like ASUS’s Eee Pad line is well on its way to filling store shelves with numerous different models. One of those has now hit the FCC under the guise of the Eee Pad TF101, although it’s also referred to as the EP101 in some of the documents. Assuming nothing has changed with ASUS’ naming scheme (always a possibility), that would peg it as the Transformer — a tablet / keyboard dock combo that we first got our hands on back at CES (and later at CeBIT). Unfortunately, ASUS wasn’t able to give us a release date then, and that still hasn’t changed, although the FCC certification does certainly suggest that it could be coming sooner rather than later.

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer passes through the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Get 35% Off of eBay Purchases via Microsoft’s Cashback

This article was written on June 17, 2008 by CyberNet.

If you couldn’t tell by now, we’re all about saving a buck whenever we can. That’s why we told you about how you could get 10% off of eBay purchases through Microsoft’s Cashback program. We’re going to bring it up once more, only because they’ve sweetened the deal. Now when you search for certain items, you’ll see a link to get 35% off your purchase.

Razr - Live Search.png

We decided to go to Live Search and search for the Razr once more, and sure enough we saw the link to get up to 35% off of a purchase if you pay with PayPal. The key is that not all items are going to return the 35% offer. Some ads will still show 10% off so you just need to play around and search for different items. Aside from Razr, searching for “Cheap Xbox” also worked.

Once you see the ad, click on it and you’ll be taken to eBay. Once there you can go and search for most anything and still get the 35% percent off. When you think about it, that’s pretty significant. A $300 item would be $195 and a $200 item would be $130. If you have something in mind you need to purchase from eBay anyways, this is a great deal.

Source: Slick Deals

Note: This offer is available only to U.S. residents.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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DST glitch: Apple iOS would rather spring back

Consumers report that their iPhone alarms went off at the wrong time as daylight saving time hit. Maybe Apple needs to hire a CCO (chief clockmaking officer)?

Report: Microsoft Lays Unsuccessful Zune to Rest

Released in 2009, Microsoft's Zune HD packs an OLED screen, HD radio and HD video-out. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

By Peter Bright, Ars Technica

Bloomberg is reporting that Microsoft will cease development of its family of Zune-branded music players due to weak demand and a desire to focus on its smartphone platform.

Zune will live on as a software-and-services platform, according to Bloomberg’s source. Windows Phone 7 embeds the Zune player for media playback on the phone, uses the Zune Marketplace for online music sales, and the Zune PC software for media syncing and firmware updates. These uses will be unhindered by the cancellation of the standalone Zune hardware.

Since their introduction in 2006, the Zune players always played second fiddle — with that — to Apple’s iPod line. The 2009 Zune HD model was a well-received, well-designed, and supremely elegant device, but was a case of too little, too late. It was competing against Apple’s iPod touch, with its enormous App Store advantage.

Microsoft also did little to promote the Zune brand beyond US borders. The original models were also available in Canada, but until recently, the Zune HD was U.S.-only. As a result, Microsoft failed to threaten Apple’s dominance, leaving Cupertino to take 77 percent of the digital music player market last year.

Over the past couple of months rumors have been swirling around that Zune would either be killed off or rebranded, and Microsoft has yet to officially confirm the hardware’s demise. The apparent decision to cancel the standalone hardware may be the fact behind the rumors, or this could be the first step in a complete overhaul and rebranding of the platform, possibly codenamed “Ventura.” The decision to end Zune hardware production also means that it’s unlikely that Microsoft will ever mimic Apple and produce an iPod touch equivalent for Windows Phone 7 — the phone platform without the phone part.

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Report: Microsoft shelving Zune player, not brand

The Zune, Microsoft’s MP3 player and answer to Apple’s iPod, is said to be on its way out, according to Bloomberg.

Originally posted at News – Microsoft