Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve been waiting to get our grubby mitts on the LG Arena KM900 and try out the S-Class 3D UI for ourselves, and well — it’s a nice featurephone interface, but it’s not exactly revolutionary. The widget interface is nice, and we’re into the picture-based contacts screen, but the icon-based home screen just feels cluttered, especially when viewed in the expanded horizontal orientation. It’ll be interesting to see how LG refines these elements in its upcoming onslaught of Windows Mobile phones — we wouldn’t drop back to a featurephone for this stuff, but we’d be plenty interested in seeing more phones like the GM730 with this interface. Video after the break!

Read – Engadget Spanish coverage of the KM900
Read – Press release

Continue reading LG Arena KM900 hands-on with video interface tour

Filed under: Cellphones

LG Arena KM900 hands-on with video interface tour originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fresh from Barcelona, the wireless modem gurus at Option have announced their new uCAN software platform. To be implemented across the entire iCON modem lineup, the software allows users to run applications (such as Open Office) from their USB modem and interact directly with documents situated on their workstation at home. You can also have those apps you might need to use in a pinch — such as Skype — preconfigured with all your data. If that weren’t enough, the device sports something called “Zero Footprint” technology, which is designed to ensure that “no trace of activity is left on the host computer, running either Windows XP, Windows Vista or Mac OS, when the device is disconnected.” You can even launch a browser from the thing, keeping all those passwords and cookies safely off of whichever machine you happen to be borrowing. The first uCAN devices are expected to appear sometime before July of this year. More pics after the break.

Continue reading Option announces uCAN remote data access for iCON USB modems

Filed under: Laptops

Option announces uCAN remote data access for iCON USB modems originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Whoa, Nelly! While Samsung is strutting its 8 megapixel Memoir and Sony Ericsson is letting us all in on the forthcoming 12 megapixel Idou, Nokia is getting even with its 8 megapixel N86. Amazingly, we saw that the suits in Espoo had this thing on the brain way back in 2007, but not until today have we seen a real live product. The N-series slider boasts a Carl Zeiss lens, AutoFocus, dual-LED flash and Symbian S60, not to mention a 2.6-inch OLED display, 8GB of internal memory, a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack, microUSB connector and Share on Ovi integration. We’re left in the dark when it comes to pricing and availability, but we’re hoping to hear more really, really soon. More shots are waiting in the read link.

Update: The full specs sheets have just leaked, yum!

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia busts out its own 8 megapixel slider: the N86 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We had opportunity to check out one of LG’s newest smartphones, the LG GM730 at MWC today. We’ve seen all the specs but thought knew you all needed a really good look at the new S-Class UI. This phone is not final, so our hands-on shows a few interface hiccups, but, you’ll get the drift. So what’s the take away here? This appears to be a darn fine overlay on Windows Mobile, access to things from the home screen are simple and quick: mail, messaging, calendar, menus to get at network settings and so forth are a welcome addition. The device feels sturdy (even without a back) and looks just fine in our sleep deprived eyes. Carry on for a video with all the action and a gallery stuffed full of MWC love.

Continue reading LG GM730 hands-on (with video!)

Filed under: Cellphones

LG GM730 hands-on (with video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You may be surprised to learn this, but we’re currently at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, which is basically the CES of cellphone shows. We’ve seen a handful of emails from confused readers who didn’t understand why the site was stacked from floor to ceiling with cellphone news — and we wanted to clear things up. We’re not just covering the news because there’s a tradeshow going on, of course. There are some huge stories breaking at MWC, and we’d be remiss in our duties if we didn’t cover every single one of them. Now, some of you may ask why we don’t just carry the news on Engadget Mobile; the simple answer is that we are covering the news on Engadget Mobile, but the stuff that we feel has crossover relevance and appeal (which happens to be a lot this year) ends up on Engadget Classic as well. If you can’t handle the insane and awesome torrent of phone-related news, you can subscribe to a special feed we’ve set up with Yahoo! Pipes which axes our MWC stories, but to be frank, you’ll be missing a lot of really cool gadget news. Hey, it’s your call.

Engadget Classic without any MWC news – RSS feed, Pipes page
Engadget Classic with only MWC news – RSS feed

Filed under: Announcements

Too much cellphone news on Engadget? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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