Bet you didn’t see that coming, did you? The shock of a real, honest-to-goodness N95 with North American 3G bands becoming reality (sorry, T-Mobile, not you!) is still wearing off, and now the company’s spouting off about a September release for the darned thing. As we found in our hands-on, this particular variant of the S60 superphone gets tweaked just a bit from the original — though not as much as the bigger-screened N95 8GB — offering a redesigned, recessed camera lens (sans protective cover), twice the RAM, dimpled music control keys, and re-upped battery capacity. Nokia claims this very special version of the N95 was made in part because it’s been “extremely pleased” with response to the European N95 in these parts — so to everyone with an N95 in your pocket right now, thanks! As we mentioned, grab it starting next month through a variety of online retailers plus Nokia’s flagship stores in New York and Chicago for $699.
We will be able to play Street Fighter on Nokia Cell Phones by 2008. Nokia and Capcom today revealed that Capcom will be publishing games on N-Gage, Nokia’s next generation mobile gaming platform, in 2008. Capcom is the first Japanese based publisher to show their commitment to N-Gage, which makes its global debut later this year, ushering in a new era for games on mobile devices.
Yosuke Yoneda, Director of Capcom’s European Mobile Division, said “Capcom is dedicated to creating great mobile games, and believes that N-Gage will allow us to bring some of our most famous franchises to the platform. Our dedication to quality and creative thinking has seen the company produce a series of ground-breaking titles, with stunning visuals and in-depth game play, never before seen on the mobile”.
Fujitsu-Siemens is supposed to debut the Scaleo, its first entry in the Windows Home Server market, later this week at IFA, but this press shot — the first non-renders we’ve seen — have surfaced a bit early, along with some more specs. The Scaleo will feature 4 internal drive bays, four USB 2 ports, two eSATA ports, “always-available” operation as opposed to being always-on, and silent operation. No word on that rumored two-drive RAID array or that 50W power consumption, but we’ll know more when we get our hands on one at the conference.
Garmin, now the #1 personal navigation device seller in the US, announced two new devices in its Onto Fitness series for cyclists. The Garmin Edge 705 (left) and Edge 605 (right) both feature a 2.2" color screen and offer turn-by-turn directions. The usual add-ons include detailed street maps and topography of the region. Both devices can display climb/descent, altitude, speed, distance and time. With the recent Garmin ANT+Sport technology incorporated into the Edge navigation devices, they can seamlessly interface with other fitness devices such as a heart rate monitor or even other Edge units. This lets cyclists share courses, workout data and saved rides.
The Edge 705 improves upon the 605 by incorporating a barometric altimeter to accurately record altitude data, letting cyclists match their altitude profile with their speed/heart rate for a etter post-ride analysis. It also features a heart rate monitor that uses new wireless technology to eliminate cross talk and interference and delivers real-time heart rate data onto the user’s device.
By pairing your Garmin Edge 605 or 705 with Garmin Connect, an online training site, you can network with other cyclists and outdoor enthusiasts, log their workouts and share yours.
The Edge 605 carries a price tag of US $399.99 while the Edge 705 starts from US $499.99. Add on a heart rate monitor and speed/cadence sensor to bring it to US $549.99. Throw in an ANT+Sport bundle for $649.99. Everything will be available in December 2007. Garmin Read
Podcast co-host Matt Miller and I have been using an HTC Advantage for about the same length of time and have both been surprisingly happy with the unique device. That’s pretty funny because Matt and I have used just about every type of device ever made and as we’ve stated on the MobileTechRoundup podcast we were both totally unprepared to be so impressed with the Advantage. Matt has published a thorough, entertaining and accurate review of the Advantage on his Mobile Gadgeteer blog that is a must-read for anyone with an interest in the HTC Advantage. Matt covers the Advantage via photo (80 of them!), video and the written word that leaves no question unasked about the device. I love the video of hooking his Advantage up to a 37" TV with an optional cable. Well done, my friend.
Continuing the trend of wild Cupertino-relatedrumors, while simultaneously bringing to mind an old joke about Microsoft and GM, a German magazine is claiming that Apple and Volkswagen have entered into discussions over a concept vehicle to be dubbed — you guessed it — the iCar. If you believe what they say, the two companies are in the early stages of planning for an entire line of new VWs that would incorporate Apple-sourced designs and features. Given that we’ve seen the firms collaborate in the past, this isn’t too far out there — though we wouldn’t go wagering on this rumor, either. As you can see below, the Engadget gang chimed in on the news, but what do you think the iCar would be like?
Ryan: “Can hit 100Mph, can’t hit 100Kbps.” Evan: “The scroll wheel would be hard to steer in sharp turns.” Paul: “Give it a few weeks and you should be breaking 25Mph no sweat.” Nilay: “It only uses one kid of gas!” Josh: “I hear it doesn’t have 3G either.” Chris: “Internal combustion engines were stupid until we decided to use them.” Dante: “White.”
My friend Ben just shot me a beta invite to Mailplane which looks essential for GMail users running Mac OS X. Mailplane is a standalone application that’s essentially built around Google’s Gmail with functionality and plugins that make the mail experience much better from what I’ve seen. Some of the features include:
Drag and drop attachments
Integration with Grab to capture and send screen shots and clips
An iPhoto plugin for sending optimized photos
Automatic picture optimization to decrease attachment sizes
Let’s take a look at this Heineken commercial video. No more hot and sexy girls, this time they opted for the robotic girl. Watch the video for more details.
