Hasta La Gadget!

Netcomm was at CTIA showing off its 3G pocket router, and while they admit it apes the MiFi, it builds on it in some pretty useful ways. Battery life purportedly outdoes its rival, with four hours use, even with multiple devices connected — and when your batteries finally do tank, connecting it to your laptop will let it recharge and still allow wireless connectivity. The MyZone ships in both US and global 3G variants with both also packing quad-band EDGE, and 802.11g WiFi. Another handy feature — at least for those that travel — is the MyZone’s ability to sort out the APN details for whatever carrier’s SIM you happen to put in it, so using it is as simple as popping in your SIM and connecting. We didn’t have an opportunity to get connected to it and give it a proper test drive, but we’re waiting for one to arrive and as soon as we do we’ll let you know how we get on. Few more pics right after the break.

Netcomm MyZone hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 16:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve been hearing of OpenPeak devices for years, but the company is a little camera shy — particularly because most of their products, like the Verizon Hub and O2 Joggler, are re-branded by carriers. However, the company seems to be getting behind its recently announced OpenTablet 7 in a big way, recently announcing a partnership with AT&T for data plans in the US. Neither party will confirm exact plan pricing, but we’re getting the vibe that it will be “familiar” to folks who’ve seen iPad data pricing. The device itself is surprisingly well built — not at all one of these dime-a-tablet jobs — and the software is rather mature as well. OpenPeak claims to have “thousands of apps” for its platform that stretches across devices including phones, frames, and now a tablet, with a Linux-based platform with a Flash layer on top.

Refreshingly for the tablet space, the UI isn’t a bit laggy, and seems pretty far along, though we’re promised even more polish as this thing nears market. We didn’t check out a browser, and some elements like the touchscreen keyboard are pretty dismal, but for home automation or video conferencing (the device packs a 1080p front-facing camera and a 5 megapixel shooter around back), it seems like OpenPeak can carve a niche for itself on the market. Most of all, we’re impressed with the 1.9GHz Moorestown chip under the hood, which offers huge power savings over Atom; plenty of juice for some media rich apps, UI elements, and video; and even runs cool to the touch. An included docking station offers charging and port replication, but there’s also an HDMI plug built right into the bottom of the tablet, along with removable microSD up top. No word on when exactly this will hit the market this year, how much it’ll cost, or if it’ll be rebranded by AT&T. Check out a video hands-on after the break, and a quick note on the press shots below: apps are subject to change based on the rebadger’s own partnerships.

Continue reading OpenPeak’s OpenTablet 7 hands-on: Moorestown has found a friend

OpenPeak’s OpenTablet 7 hands-on: Moorestown has found a friend originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CTIA always has its fair share of dodgy goods, from mildly quirky to downright laughable, we see all kinds. The Cell-Mate admittedly touches on all of these but is surprisingly useful, comfortable, and at $14.99, dirt cheap. The box includes the wire headset and a couple Velcro adhesive pads that you apply to your set; slap one on to your phone, attach to the wire frame and you’re ready to talk handsfree. Our own Paul Miller agreed to put it through its paces including: assembly, a test call, and then a fast lap around the press room here at CTIA. Please join us after the break as we torture test the Cell-Mate.

Continue reading Cell-Mate headset heads-on

Cell-Mate headset heads-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 09:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lenovo adds Sprint 3G, 4G support across ThinkPad line originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 01:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So, give this a listen — a survey from the lairs of Sybase has found that among smartphone-owning respondents, some 52.3 percent of them “would use a tablet device such as the Apple iPad is for working on the go.” We fully understand that this phrase leaves open the possibility of using tablets not Designed in Cupertino, but the mere fact that it’s highlighted gave us pause. We’re still trying to figure out how exactly Apple’s forthcoming tablet is going to fit between our daily laptop and workhorse-of-a-smartphone, and without a major overhaul of the iPhone OS, we definitely can’t visualize ourselves using it for “work.” ‘Course, maybe they’re into something that doesn’t require the use of multiple applications at once, and maybe the dearth of a real keyboard isn’t much of a productivity killer, but we’re just not sold on the iPad being a bona fide work machine as-is. So, what say you? Are you one of those 52.3 percenters? Or do you relate more with the vocal minority?

Survey finds people eager to ‘work on the go’ with iPad, we wonder what line of ‘work’ they’re in originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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