gadget news and reviews

In Photos: Nokia N900 +

About two weeks ago I published a quick blurb about the Nokia N900 beginning to ship in the United States. While the phone isn’t available directly through any major domestic Cell Phone Carrier such as Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint, it’s still making plenty of buzz. The N900 sports many features that definitely are by far more advance than the Apple iPhone 3GS and the Motorola Droid. Thanks to Meric Ozturk, I was lucky enough to get a hold of a unit long enough to snap a few product shots.

While the Nokia N900 will be a major hit across Europe and Asia, there’s little chance that it will be able to compete with smart phones in the United States. Despite that, Nokia still has a large fan base across the country and many tech enthusiasts would love to pick one of these up. While I still haven’t heard back from Nokia for a review unit, call me if you’re reading this, you guys can enjoy this high resolution photo gallery. If you want to pick one up, it’s already available for pre-order through Amazon.com. You can also get the N900 through Dell.com for a little cheaper ($440) if you use Bing.com for 20% Cashback.

Links: Nokia USA N900

Papershow, Write It. Show It. (Review) 2

Canson’s latest product, the Papershow, aims to revolutionize presentations with a new technology that offers an easy way to present without having to use a keyboard, mouse, or clicker. The kit includes some special paper and Bluetooth-powered pen and receiver. Once setup, the device offers the ability to present slides, images, and digital charts while editing and making changes live. Papershow essentially becomes a whiteboard using a projector and a computer controlled with a pen on paper.

To get started, I popped in the AA battery into the pen and plugged the Bluetooth USB receiver into my laptop. My Windows 7 machine had some issues running the application at first, but it worked once running in compatibility mode for Vista. Since all the software runs off the device, there was no more installation hassle. During configuration, I had to choose which style paper I had planned to use, and in my case, it was the A4 notebook. The starter kit comes with both an A4 notebook of 40 pages and 30 pages of 8.5×11 inch printer paper. The Papershow pen will only work with this special paper. There are nearly invisible dots integrated throughout each sheet which allow the pen’s technology to detect movement and behavior. There are several icons on the side of each sheet which through a quick tap allow changing color, shape, thickness, etc. Other icons on the side allow refining the presentation with post-its, arrows, shapes, and other tools. These controls also allow editing by redoing, undoing, and even deleting objects or slides. You can also print and export your presentation for future reference.

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HTC Droid Eris – Verizon (Review) 10

Earlier this month Skatter Tech reviewed the Motorola Droid, now the flagship device for Verizon Wireless. Another phone, the HTC Droid Eris, was also announced that day, but was lost in all the attention and chaos. The Droid Eris is the Verizon Wireless version of the HTC Hero on Sprint, which we reviewed as well. We even snapped a few comparison shots to show off the visual hardware differences. While the Droid Eris doesn’t have nearly all the bells and whistles the Motorola Droid does, it’s more affordable and still has a lot of smartphone features to offer.

The Hardware – 4/5 stars
The Droid Eris is one of the best-looking smart phones I’ve come across. It’s definitely looks friendlier than the robotic Motorola Droid and cuter than it’s Sprint sibling the HTC Hero. It has an attractive soft black-coated finish and silver trims on the side. It’s fairly light weight and can slip into just about any pocket. There are four touch sensitive keys below the display: Home, Menu, Back, and Search. The inclusion of physical send and end keys are appreciated. HTC also implemented a special trackball for navigating the interface. It even lights up when notifications are available. There’s a standard 3.5mm headphone jack on the top, a 5 megapixel camera on the back, and a volume rocker on the side. I was slightly disappointed to find that the Eris uses a HTC proprietary USB cable and that microSD expansion slot (8GB card included, supports 16GB card max) was hidden behind the rear plate.

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Black Friday: Powermat Giveaway Contest! 78

As Black Friday is coming to an end, I felt it would only be appropriate that Skatter Tech gives away a free Powermat. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a wireless charger for your gadgets. We’ve got our in-depth review published here and a video demo here. So here’s what’s included: The Powermat Home & Office Mat ($99), iPod Touch Receiver ($39), iPod/iPhone Dock Receiver ($39), and Nintendo DSi Receiver ($29). That’s worth over $200 without taking sales tax into account! Here’s how it’s going to work:

Special thanks to Powermat (@powermat) for sponsoring our giveaway!

How to enter the contest:

1. Become a Facebook Fan of Skatter Tech
2. Use Facebook Connect to leave a comment below

Some Rules Apply:

• Don’t try to enter more than once. (We have robots!)
• Must live in the United States. 13 and older only.
• Winner is randomly chosen by computer generator.
• Entries close after Thursday 12/03/09 11:59 PM (PST).
• Winner will be announced on this post on 12/04/09.
• Winner has 24 hours to respond to Facebook Message.

That’s pretty much it. If you don’t know what Facebook Connect is, it’s simple. Just click on “FB Connect” next to the comment box and login with your Facebook Account. When you post a comment you’ll see your mugshot and name in the comments! If you do that and become a Fan of Skatter Tech, you’re in!

Update 12/04/09: After throwing the names into Excel and using the Rand function, we finally came up with a winner who had both left a comment and was a Facebook Fan of Skatter Tech.

Congratulations: Arjun Patel!

We hope that you send us a snap of the Powermat in use and tell everyone what you think about it!

Trillian For iPhone (Review) 3

After nearly a two month delay, Cerulean Studios finally managed to get the iPhone version of their popular multi-protocol Trillian chat client listed in the App Store. While other similar Apps such as BeejiveIM have been available for sometime, Trillian will interest customers using the desktop version as it offers a similar experience. Trillian for iPhone supports connecting to the AIM, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, and Google Talk protocols.

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Verizon’s New Early Termination Fees +

Just a few years ago, every Verizon Wireless customer was eligible towards a $100 discount when they upgraded their phone after their two-year contract expired. In 2007, I wrote an article about Verizon downgrading their Upgrade Plan. Their new “Every Two Plan” would only entitle customers paying over $80 a month on services a $100 discount towards a new phone, while the rest only received a $50 discount. They recently once again made some changes which has upset many customers.

Verizon Wireless’s latest changes apply to their Early Termination Fee (ETF). Normally if you choose to cancel your two-year contract, there would be a $175 fee for any device. As of November 15th, there’s a new fee for Smartphone owners, categorized as “advance devices” by Verizon. If you were to purchase a smartphone such as the Motorola Droid and decide to switch providers or cancel your contract, you’ll now have to pay a $350 ETF. If you moved to a new location that doesn’t have signal and decided to cancel your service the second month into the contract, that would mean you would end up paying nearly $550 for just the device. While Verizon does knock $10 off the ETF each month, that’s still a $130 left over to shell out 22 months into a contract. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has even introduced a bill to revert this change since it’s “anti-competitive” and “anti-consumer.” As for now, fortunately, non-smartphone devices still only have a $175 ETF.

It’s true that the devices such as the Motorola Droid are heavily subsidized; otherwise we would have to pay a couple hundred bucks extra up front. However the required Smartphone data plans with the cheapest calling plans will still cost an average customer nearly $2000 over a two-year period. Even with the subsidy for the device calculated in, that’s still large amount to spend. While this won’t affect customers that don’t plan on canceling their contracts, it would still be nice to at least see Verizon increase the amount knocked off the ETF each month by at least a couple dollars so that the ETF would be close to zero a month before a contract ends.

While it’s great to see new high tech phones with more features become available for lower prices each year, it’s a bit depressing when you realize the service cost through just about every provider hasn’t.

What do you all think about the increased ETF? Is it fair to charge Smartphone owners more?

Links: VerizonWireless.com

Black Friday 2009 Tech Buying Guide +

Black Friday is just 5 days away. In all the chaos that’s bound to happen, it’s best to plan before heading out. To help all you geeks out there, we’ve got a “master list” to all the tech deals out there. This includes just about everything from Cameras, DVDs, Flash Drives, GPS Navigators, Hard Drives, Laptops, Memory Cards, Phones, Printers, Routers, TVs, and Video Games. So before you to show up at a random electronics store on November 27th, look through our tech guide. Don’t be unprepared. The file includes a comprehensive list of names of retail stores, opening times, items, and their prices listed.

Download:
black-friday-2009-tech-buying-guide.xlsx (~116 KB)
Download is only a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet. We don’t distribute spyware/malware/adware.

I should also mention that Skatter Tech did not create this list, only modified it. I found it on Gophn.com who updated the FatWallet.com list. I’ve stripped out everything that doesn’t have to relate to gadgets for all you geeks out there! I’ll do my best to add any new information thought the next few days.

Related Links: BlackFriday.info | BFAds.net | FatWallet.com | SlickDeals.net

HTC Touch Pro2 – Sprint (Review) 6

Since the Apple iPhone debuted, there’s been a struggle for competing companies to produce a better do-it-all smart phone. After fairly successful sales of the original HTC Touch Pro, major contender HTC is back with the HTC Touch Pro2 on Sprint. After an initial glance at the specifications, it looks great. The Touch Pro2 sports features including a slide out QWERTY keyboard, a touch screen display, 3.2 megapixel camera, email client, browser, GPS, and plenty more. It seems to have all the goods, but let’s see how it stacks up and find out whether it’s the right phone for you.

The Body – 3/5 stars
HTC kept the front Touch Pro2 clean and simple. There’s a large 3.6 inch resistive touch screen, a touch zoom strip, and physical keys for Send, End, Start Menu, and Back on front. Along the sides, there’s a completely flush volume toggle button. A slot to store the stylus for the display is in the bottom right hand corner of the device. The proprietary USB charging port is right besides a standard 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom. It also supports up to 32GB microSD expansion, but no card is included, which is a bit dissapointing. If I had to describe this phone with a quote, it would be: “Business in the front, party in the back.” While not describing a mullet for once, the clean-cut front is offset by an odd array of square perforations on the back surrounding the camera and an oddly placed microphone button. Although these perforations may be able to collect dust, they’re actually openings for the fairly respectable built-in speaker. There’s a full-sized QWERTY keyboard that slides out from under the display. Once extended, the screen can actually prop up at an angle, similar to a laptop. Although it is a neat way place on a flat surface to watch Sprint TV, I felt as though it just made the entire mechanism weaker was quite awkward to use when held. I also should mention this phone is huge. It’s thicker and weighs more than just about any smartphone I’ve come across. It’s at least 0.2 inches thicker than the HTC Eris and weighs about 2 ounces more than the HTC Hero. While there’s a demographic that’s needs this type of a phone, I would imagine that most consumers would prefer carrying a more compact device.

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Video: Install Chrome OS In VirtualBox 38

Google Chrome was announced yesterday. As a geek, the first thing I naturally wanted to do was install it. Since I don’t have an extra machine lying around, the easiest way to do so is to run it virtually on my existing machine. So I decided to make a quick screen cast on how to install Google Chrome OS in VirtualBox. (Credit for the idea goes to UbuntuForums) It’s actually quite easy, even if you’re computer illiterate. To get started, just watch the video below:

Things Needed:

• Download & Install VirtualBox (Free)
• Download & Unzip the Chrome OS image (via GDGT.com)

Update: Looks like GDGT posted a image for VirtualBox as well. However it doesn’t seem to work. Just stick to the VMWare .vmdk file for use with VirtualBox as I did. Otherwise it just loads a black screen.

That’s pretty much it. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask below!

Links: Watch This in HD on Vimeo.com

Google Announces Chromium OS 4

It’s finally here. After an announcement earlier this year, Google finally revealed their new open-source project named Chromium OS. As the name implies, it’s closely associated with the fairly new and increasingly popular Google Chrome browser. Although it won’t be available to users for another year, they plan to work with the open source community and developers to make improvements before an official launch. Just about every line of code is available to anyone who wishes to contribute to the project. Google hopes to begin to make final implementations to the code through out the next year.

For the most part, it’s unlike any other operating system. It focuses at making the web a better experience rather than on local desktop applications. Chromium tries to utilize Google’s vastly growing “cloud computer” network. Instead of installing applications, most will run right out of a browser, while still offering a similar experience. The entire OS caters to the idea of a light weight operating system. Most data will be stored on Google’s network instead of your computer’s hard drive. Google also boasts safer working environment since each application would be contained within a “sandbox,” preventing access to other bits of data on your machine. It supposedly can fix itself with a simple reboot if the base code becomes damaged. Reboots don’t take long either, Chromium takes just a few seconds to start up.

With that kept in mind, the OS will initially be designed for low-powered Netbooks. It won’t be able to replace a full Windows, Macintosh, or Linux system anytime soon, but it would be a great complement.

Links: Chromium.org | YouTube – “What is Google Chrome?”

Update: Install Google Chrome OS in VirtualBox (Video)