Hasta La Gadget!

It’s said to be “The world’s simplest cellphone.” That’s a bold claim from anyone let alone a previously unknown (in gadget circles anyway) Dutch team of creatives over at John Doe Amsterdam who wanted to build a basic phone — the most basic phone ever — that wasn’t as dull and boring as other affordable phones on the market. So is it? Well, it certainly is basic. In the age of smartphones and cheap featurephones, John’s phone is more clearly defined by what it lacks than what it has: no fancy color touchscreen display; no camera; no 3G radio, WiFi, Bluetooth or even GPRS data; no FM radio; no user-accessible storage; and no music player or apps of any kind. It can’t even send a text message. It’s just a quad-band GSM phone with an ink pen and paper notepad tucked neatly into its capacious recesses. That’s right, pen and paper. So, it’s definitely basic, but is it simple to use? Read on to find out.

Continue reading John’s Phone review: ‘the world’s simplest cellphone’

Filed under: Cellphones

John’s Phone review: ‘the world’s simplest cellphone’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve just gotten our hands on the less-insane version of Verizon’s LTE modems, the LG VL600. The company timed the shipment of these puppies to coincide with today’s announcement of the coming 4G onslaught, set to begin December 5th — which based on what we’ve seen thus far is going to be beyond awesome. Unless you’re on a Mac (more on that after the break).

In case you haven’t seen the device in question, it’s a rather large (we mean seriously large) USB dongle, which thankfully comes with a clip and extra cable. Like all LTE devices, it uses a SIM which will look familiar to those in GSM devices, but is — again — almost comically large.

We haven’t spent a load of time with the modem, but in the few short hours we’ve had to play with the device, the down- and upstream speeds we’re getting are nothing short of phenomenal. In Brooklyn, which we’re not even sure is really heavily covered by the LTE blanket (and was being battered by rain and wind at the time of testing), we saw consistent speeds which peaked at 7 Mbps down, and over 1 Mbps up. Overall, speeds held steady around 5 to 6 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. By comparison, we saw around 4 Mbps down and less than 1 Mbps up when we did some testing with Sprint’s WiMAX Overdrive 4G, and roughly 6.5 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up with Clear’s iSpot.

Overall, browsing on our computer felt nearly identical to our home broadband, and even HD video playback on YouTube was snappy and responsive over the network. And did we mention we were only getting two out of four bars on our connection?

Update: We’ve added a link to SlashGear‘s hands-on of the modem below. As you can see, speeds vary by area, and SG was pulling 12 Mbps downstream and more than 5 Mbps up — impressively matching Verizon’s claimed numbers.

Update 2: With a little more testing, we’re seeing speeds closer to Verizon’s estimates. We’ve added a second image after the break, and as you can see, we’re nabbing over 10 Mbps downstream and nearly 4 Mbps up.

Continue reading Verizon LTE / 4G preview with the LG VL600 modem

Verizon LTE / 4G preview with the LG VL600 modem originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 15:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At first glance, sitting all on its lonesome like that, the GF2 might forgivably be perceived as just another mundanely incremental upgrade on what was already a lauded predecessor in the Lumix GF1. But, for once, our pessimism was not borne out by the facts — far from it. With the GF2, Panasonic has somehow managed to shrink its smallest Micro Four Thirds shooter even further, by a reported 19 percent, and the difference in handling is tangible. The Japanese giant has also lightened the load by seven percent, thrown in a new touchscreen-centric UI, and, predictably, upped the video ante to 720/60p or 1080/60i recording in AVCHD format. Join us after the break to see what we thought of this delicious new recipe for pseudo-pocketable large-sensor shooting.

Please note: Panasonic has not yet finalized the GF2’s firmware, meaning that the sample images and video below may not necessarily be indicative of the quality you’ll get from the final product.

Continue reading Panasonic Lumix GF2 preview

Panasonic Lumix GF2 preview originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We just spent some serious, and we mean serious time with Xbox Live for Windows Phone 7. Just like your Xbox, this is sort of an amalgamation of “the place you go to play games” and “the place you go to ping and taunt your friends who also play games.” Unfortunately, it seems there’s a bit of a disconnect between phone-based scores and records and Xbox achievements — they all add up to the same gamerscore, but you can’t easily there are separate charts to pull up your most recent Halo exploits to show off on your mobile, for instance. Luckily, that still puts Microsoft in a better position than any other mobile games platform (until Apple can get Game Center to stop sucking, at least). Being able to message and challenge friends all from the same “hub” where you keep your games is great, and being able to view your avatar and the avatars of friends (you can even play dress-up with your own) is nice gravy on top.

Of course, what really matters is the games, right? Luckily, Microsoft has a pretty strong launch lineup, with some of the regulars like EA’s The Sims 3 and Need for Speed, along with some exclusives like Rocket Riot and the hotly anticipated The Harvest. The good news? Games look and play great, just like you might expect from an iPhone or Android level capacitive touchscreen platform, with The Harvest as an obvious and very important standout in complexity and polish. The bad news? Everything takes forever to load (our rough estimate is about three minutes to start playing in The Harvest), and when you don’t have any multitasking, that’s a really bad thing. Check out some of the Xbox Live hub and capabilities after the break, along with some games, and make up your own mind.

Continue reading Xbox Live for Windows Phone 7: your Xbox isn’t in your phone yet, but we’re getting there

Xbox Live for Windows Phone 7: your Xbox isn’t in your phone yet, but we’re getting there originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 17:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alright, so by now we all know that HTC’s HD7 is mostly a HD2 in imperial new clothes, but let’s give the new phone a chance, shall we? We’ve just gotten to grips with the latest member of HTC’s 4.3-inch brigade and predictably enough it feels just as snappy as the rest of the Windows Phone 7 devices introduced today. Navigation is blazingly quick, interrupted only by Microsoft’s excessive fascination with animated screen transitions. Clearly, designing the new WP7 OS around hard-set minimum specs has paid off for Microsoft, whose end product exhibits a great deal of polish. T-Mobile, the HD7’s exclusive carrier in the US, is keen to point out that it’s the largest Windows Phone 7 launch device, so if size is atop your list of priorities, this will be the phone you’ll want to start your journey with. We’ve got some in-depth impressions of the hardware after the break and a video is coming right up as well. Enjoy!

Update: As promised, a lengthy video exhibition of the HD7 awaits your eyeballs just past the break.

Continue reading HTC HD7 preview (update: video!)

HTC HD7 preview (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 10:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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