Mysterious pink iPhone 3G hits eBay, cue onslaught of rumors

Say wha’?! An iPhone in a hue other than black, white, or silver? While a red model has been rumored since before the 3G even launched, we’ve never thought about a pink one — let alone one hitting eBay. The text on the back of the device convinces us that this isn’t a simple ColorWare job, but there aren’t any photos of the back of the packaging either. Our take? Some OEM in Asia whipping up custom colors. But hey, Macworld’s just under a week away, so who knows?

Update: Go ahead and put those horses back in the stables folks, folks: Cole commented to point us over to an eBay auction for a rather familiar looking and decidedly aftermarket pink back cover. So, don’t go expecting a first-party pink iPhone at Macworld, but if you hurry up and bid now you can have yourself the most fabulous handset at the show.

[Thanks, Gav]

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Mysterious pink iPhone 3G hits eBay, cue onslaught of rumors originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Jan 2009 03:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ask Engadget: Best current smartphone for under $200?

It’s 2009, folks, so we figured we’d start it off with a bang (and about a gazillion comments in this post). George, a proud member of the USMC, is pondering what to do about a new smartphone, and given that your New Year’s resolution was undoubtedly to ditch your dumbphone in favor of a more sophisticated model, you’ll probably be interested as well.

“I am currently in the market for a new carrier and phone. I have Verizon now, but I am not all that happy with its service in my area. With the release of all the high end phones nowadays, one could get easily lost in the details. I currently have the LG Voyager; I like the phone, but I feel trapped and can’t do much with it unless I pay for every little thing. I would like a mobile with WiFi, camera (with flash if possible), touchscreen, etc. I would like to stay under $200 with a 2-year contract. Any advice would be wonderful.”

It’s tough, ain’t it George? There’s the G1, iPhone 3G, Bold, Storm — the list rolls on. So, let’s spark up a sane, intelligent conversation on the pros and cons of each, all while remembering that our ideal handset sadly didn’t arrive in time for Christmas. Interested in getting your own inquiry up in here? Send one over to ask at engadget dawt com.

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Ask Engadget: Best current smartphone for under $200? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Jan 2009 01:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Best Gadgets to Come in 2009

FIRST!!!

In 2008, some media outlets started publishing their “best of” lists by June. For 2009, we didn’t want to come in second. So here are our predictions for the best gadgets of 2009.

Premium Netbooks
We’ve seen the first wave of unusable netbooks with tiny screens. Then they got an upgrade to 8.9, 10 and even 12-inch screens. Now it’s time for netbooks to get WiMax and HSDPA connections as a standard. Hopefully they can still stay half-way affordable…

Wii MotionPlus
When I tested the Wii MotionPlus attachment at E3, I felt that Nintendo had fulfilled the promise of the Wii, finally offering a motion controller as accurate and responsive as we’d all hoped the Wiimote to be originally. If Nintendo can coax developers to support Wii Motion Plus, we can expect some killer Wii titles in ’09 (on top of Wii Sports Resort in spring), but it might be 2010 before we see all that many compatible games.

Windows 7
Microsoft can do better than Windows Vista. And with Windows 7—expected sometime before the year is up—they will. Whether it’s the new features or the less taxing system requirements, Windows 7 promises to be a vast improvement on Vista, and hopefully enough to coax most of us still clutching XP for dear life to finally upgrade.

$99 Blu-ray Player…That Does More Than Play Blu-ray
The $99 part is only slightly wishful thinking, but if LG’s recent announcements are any indication, we can expect more players with expanded services like Netflix, YouTube, CinemaNow…and who knows, maybe even Amazon VOD, Hulu and Rhapsody. Let’s watch as these companies compete for our digital download dollar.

A New iPhone
Whether it’s the iPhone 3G Part II or the rumored iPhone nano, it’s not hard to imagine Apple releasing another new iPhone this year, maintaining their trend of releasing an iPhone per year to stay competitive in the everchanging post-RAZR cellphone market. It’s no secret that most of Gizmodo loves the iPhone, so we’re pretty excited to see what’s next. (Juicy rumors of a new Mac mini and iPod Touch XL are going strong, too.)

4G Networks
3G is alright but we’re looking forward to even faster 4G wireless networks soon. Intel-backed WiMax launched in a few locales by carriers Sprint and ClearWire. The wide-area network currently promises peaks of 10 megabits per second but on paper it’s capable of over 70. We will likely see slow but steady expansion of the service through 2009. Meanwhile, AT&T and Verizon (and eventually T-Mobile) are gearing up LTE technology. The Nokia-driven GSM-based “Long Term Evolution” may actually whomp WiMax with download speeds of over 300Mbps—though its presence probably won’t be felt in the US before 2010.

A Decent-Sized OLED TV
The Sony XEL-1 OLED television rocked our world when it was released this year, but there was a catch. Its screen size was a measly 11 inches. And while we can’t expect 50-inch Kuro killers just yet, we do anticipate a very expensive mid-sized set—27 to 32 inches—to hit the market in some form this year. (Sony actually showed off a prototype that was 27 inches at CES 2008. Stay tuned for what we see at CES this year.)

Wireless HDMI
A multitude of companies have various wireless HDMI technologies, but there’s no set standard (two warring factions need to settle the fight before we can have interoperable products). The technology is there, now it’s just a matter of logistics and handshaking. With luck, by next Christmas, you’ll be able to add it to a sub-$2000 1080p projector for the ultimate no-mess home theater.

USB 3.0 Devices
Wireless HDMI may not be quite cooked yet, but the eSATA-crushing USB 3.0 standard is ready to roll. Look for a multitude of products announced within the next week with blazing transfer speeds of 4.8Gbps (moving a 25GB file in under a minute). They’ll also benefit from USB 3.0’s higher electrical power output. [Image]

A Great Android Phone
The T-Mobile G1 was the necessary first step, but with Google amping up their Android development staff and interest coming from other major phone makers like Motorola, we assume we’ll see a truly great Android phone soon. Motorola promises that their own offering will be better and cheaper than the G1, but it’s not hitting before next Christmas, so we assume HTC’s own follow-ups will come first.

And Your Best Guesses
These picks for 2009 are pretty sure things, but what wilder guesses do you have for best of 2009 products? A new PSP? A BlackBerry with a touchscreen that isn’t crap? Real light sabers? Ketchup and mustard in one container?? Dogs and cats living in harmony??? If you don’t offer up some kind of prognostication in the comments, you can never tell everyone, “I told you so.”

iPhone 3G Unlock Now Available

The iPhone 3G unlock is now available. The unlocking software is called yellowsn0w, runs as an invisible application, and it’s very easy to install. Here’s how. Updated 3: Now works for me with 0.9.4.

Yellowsn0w, the iPhone 3G unlock, runs as a small command line application that gets installed in any jailbroken iPhone 3G using Installer. It’s very easy to install:

• First, update your iPhone 3G to the latest iPhone OS provided by Apple using the latest iTunes.

• Then, use QuickPwn 2.2 to jailbreak and activate your iPhone 3G. If you have Mac OS X 10.5.6 installed, you should follow these instructions before doing it.

• Use Installer or Cydia to install yellowsn0w, which is completely free. Here are the addresses you have to use to add yellowsn0w to your installer application:

For Cydia enter: http://apt9.yellowsn0w.com/
For Installer enter: http://i.yellowsn0w.com/

• That’s it. There are some special SIM cards that give problems, but f you have a normal SIM card from any non-official carrier, you are fine.

BEWARE: This is a beta application—version 0.9.1— so install at your own risk—I’m installing, it, though. Since it’s a daemon which doesn’t alter anything permanently, it seems safe. Just proceed with caution and be warned.

Update: I’ve been trying to get this to run all day. The installation is very easy. Getting it to work right is a completely different matter.

After reboot, the iPhone won’t pick my Vodafone carrier (the Vodafone SIM card works fine in an iPhone first generation, unlocked with the old unlock). It will just sit there, idle. Won’t give any error, but it won’t connect to the carrier network.

My iPhone 3G has the 2.28 baseband, as it should, and has been Quickpwned for the first time to do the unlock. Installer and Cydia are there, working fine. I’ve carefully followed the instructions in their page—about getting out the SIM card for a minute, then get it back in (and all other possible combinations)—but it just won’t fly.

Like they say, this is beta. It won’t damage your iPhone—in theory—but it may or may not run. It seems like there are other reports of the same, as well as other people talking about losing the network connection.

Even while this is labeled as a beta, it saddens me that the iPhone Dev Team has embraced the damn beta culture just to make the release on a cute date. It looks like the old days of solid versions are long gone by.

Update 2: There’s a poll here with people saying if it works or not. At the time of this writing, these were the stats:

It worked: 23 34.33%
It doesn’t work: 44 65.67%
Voters: 67.

Hopefully, a more stable and predictable release will come soon. Until then, I will keep trying. If you have any reports, drop me a line via email.

Update 3: iPhone Dev Team has released version 0.9.4. After some magic moves in the terminal, it worked for me. My iPhone 3G is now working in Spain in the Vodafone network. [IPhone Dev Team]

Dev-Team teases v2.2-compatible iPhone 3G unlock for the New Year

Ever since the Dev-Team kinda sorta promised that they would have a neatly packaged iPhone 3G unlock ready for release by the year’s end, we’ve all been waiting on pins and needles, counting down the moments until freedom was in hand yet again. Now, a cryptic message on the crew’s blog has been followed up with a not-at-all secretive image (shown above), which shows that whatever magic they’ve got going on will work with the latest (v2.2) iPhone 3G firmware. According to a related writeup at yellowsn0w, we’re clearly told that the unlock tool will be made available by midnight PST at the latest, though we’re hoping those guys have their AM / PM mixed up — otherwise, you might be waiting until noontime tomorrow. At any rate, now you’ve more than a day off and black eyed peas to look forward to tomorrow, right?

[Via MobileCrunch]

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Dev-Team teases v2.2-compatible iPhone 3G unlock for the New Year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DIY external iPhone keyboards get a tad more practical

That 360 Chatpad hack we saw back in November was certainly an impressive enough proof of concept, but if you want to get a bit more typing done with a bit less cluttter, you’ll no doubt be quite a bit more impressed with this latest mod by the very same Ralf Ackermann. This setup uses a Robotech Bluetooth module that’s placed in a modified battery sleeve and connected to an unlocked iPhone (or iPod Touch) which, in turn, communicates with the keyboard using the Bluetooth SPP profile (a VNC server and a few other tricks also come into the picture). Of course, that’s still a long ways from an officially supported solution, but if you’re looking to give it a go, Ralf is promising to dish out the necessary schematics and source code soon.

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DIY external iPhone keyboards get a tad more practical originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple iPad Tablet Device Rumoured For 2009

pspan class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image” style=”display: inline;”img alt=”iPadConcept.jpg” src=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/iPadConcept.jpg” width=”588″ height=”350″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //span/p pRumours have been circulating about a new device from Apple that’ll be appearing next year, and the nature of its a href=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/29/apple_files_patent_for_new_ges.html”recent patent/a suggests they could very well be true./p pDetails of a new large screen iPod, dubbed the ‘iPad’ have been released with the device likely to sport a 7″ or 9″ touchscreen display. This is a market that Apple has been contemplating for a while now, and the success of recent additions like the iPhone and iPod Touch suggests that it’s now well prepared to get involved. /p pbr / /pimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.uk.gizmodo.com/c/552/f/9581/s/2a8cd34/mf.gif’ border=’0’/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0’trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Apple iPad Tablet Device Rumoured For 2009link=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/31/apple_ipad_tablet_device_rumou.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Apple iPad Tablet Device Rumoured For 2009link=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/31/apple_ipad_tablet_device_rumou.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588742263/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44617012/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588742263/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44617012/a2.img” border=”0″//a

iLuv rolls out iHD171 HD radio with iPhone / iPod dock, iTunes tagging

iLuv has been on quite the roll of late with these radio clocks and whatnot, though we’re a touch more excited than usual about the iHD171. For starters, this one tunes into HD Radio stations (you know, given how FM is so 2006), and it also plays nice with dock-connecting iPods and iPhones. You’ll find twin alarms for keeping couples happy, a front-panel display, iTunes tagging support, jAura speaker technology, an auxiliary line input (3.5-millimeter jack) and twin 4-watt drivers. If all that’s enough for you to exchange $199.99 for, you can do just that next month. Full release is after the jump.

Continue reading iLuv rolls out iHD171 HD radio with iPhone / iPod dock, iTunes tagging

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iLuv rolls out iHD171 HD radio with iPhone / iPod dock, iTunes tagging originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vermont Gets the iPhone (and Its About Time)

iPhone_3G_Side.jpgIt’s been a long time coming, but soon, people living in Vermont will finally be able to get an iPhone.

AT&T recently announced that AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets will add about 75 new jobs in Vermont as a result of its Rural Cellular Communications acquisition; that company provides rural and suburban wireless connections under the Unicel brand in the state.

The result is that AT&T’s full portfolio of products and services, including the iPhone 3G and the Blackberry Bold, will be available at ten former Unicel retail locations in Vermont starting mid-January. By the end of February, they’ll all be rebranded as AT&T locations.

Magnetic / detachable lenses suddenly make cellphone cameras fun

Not that we haven’t seen patently absurd lens attachments for mobiles before, but we’ve yet to come across any that were this universal (and be to honest, this useful). Sure, one could argue that a detachable wide-angle, fisheye or 2x telephoto lens made for a cellphone camera is more likely to do nothing than something, but we prefer to look on the sunny side of things. In other words, it’s totally worth $16.99 just to be able to make your subjects pause as you whip out the correct lens for the occasion… which you’re photographing on your C905.

[Via OhGizmo]

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Magnetic / detachable lenses suddenly make cellphone cameras fun originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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