Phone Reviews
Review: The Motorola Defy (MB 525)
Red Bull Mobile launched in South Africa on the 25th March with two contract options available one for R150 per month and the other for R250 per month. (Detailed info) Both these contracts currently offer the best value for money mobile contracts available in South Africa. [Read... [Read more...]
Smart Phones
Why do water and smartphones not mix
Here’s Yahoo News’s take on how to save you cell phone after you dropped it in water. Step 1: Do NOT turn on the phone Why do water and smartphones not mix? Because the water shorts out your smartphone’s electrical circuits. So whatever you do, don’t turn... [Read more...]
Wi-Fi Gadgets
Motorola Xoom might be more expensive than the iPad
Technology website Engadget has received images of an ad by American retail store Best Buy that says Motorola’s Xoom tablet will launch on February 24 and will be priced at $799.99 - a figure that translates into “too much” in the eyes of many technology journalists. Gizmodo... [Read more...]
Events
O2 launches new public access Wi-Fi network
Telecommunications company O2 is teaming up with retailers and events venues to offer a free-to-access Wi-Fi service across the UK. O2’s new Wi-Fi platform aims to at least double the coverage currently offered by its rivals in the UK through premium hotspots and will immediately... [Read more...]
Accessories
One week with the iPad 2
Ecosystem
I do not personally buy music from iTunes and prefer using either my Zune Pass on WP7 or the Amazon MP3 service. However, I do use iTunes for podcasts, video content (movies and TV shows), and applications. The iTunes ecosystem and ease of use with the iPad is a huge seller, IMHO. While I have multiple ways to get movies, I find the ease of discovery and download of movies to rent and the reasonable price (usually $3.99 for the iPad) to win out every time. Movies also look great on a 9.7 inch display while on the plane or even in a hotel room. I am not even plugged into the whole Apple home integration with AirPlay and the Apple TV that I understand shows even better how a complete ecosystem is worth considering an Apple iPad.
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Camera Phones
16 Megapixels Camera on the new HTC Windows Phone
The word on the street right now is that HTC is planning a 16-megapixel Windows Phone 7 camera smartphone. We have no idea what HTC will call the device, but the phone has already been featured in a promo video that somehow found its way to the web (we have it embedded below too.)
Wireless Connectivity
Broadband internet to every American household
The implementation of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) “National Broadband Plan,” which intends to ensure every American household has broadband internet by 2020, will be challenging, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.
The GAO studied several countries that have broadband, including the U.S., and found a 90 percent deployment rate in the country as a part of the report requested by Henry Waxman, Chairman .
[Read more...]
GPS
State Farm Insurance has developed a new app geared to battle distracted driving, following a new trend in aiding motorists on the road.
Available on iPhones and iPods, the “Driver Feedback” app provides driver scores by assessing driver acceleration, cornering and braking by using the iOS device’s accelerometer.
The modern answer to the driver’s coach, the free app also records potentially dangerous driving moves along with a map pinpointing the area. Users can also compare their scores with other profiles.
Driver Feedback joins a new breed of safe-driving apps keeping a watchful eye on roads and highways.
[Read more...]
Hot Spots
Create your own WiFi hotspot
Almost all the portable gadgets we use today need to be connected to the internet. Instead of getting an individual internet connection for each of them, you can use one of them to create a personal, mobile Wi-Fi hotspot. All your other Wi-Fi enabled devices will then be able to connect to this hotspot and share the primary internet connection.
[Read more...]
Wireless Security
How Cloud Could Wash Out Wireless Security
German hacker Thomas Roth’s announcement that he used Amazon.com’s (Nasdaq: AMZN) cloud service to crack a wireless network security standard has left some security researchers scratching their heads. Others are merely shaking them in disbelief.
That attack was launched against the SHA-1 hash algorithm.
Roth’s conclusions are that the SHA-1 algorithm is not fit for password hashing, and the compute power offered by cloud services makes it cheap and easy to launch brute-force attacks on passwords.
[Read more...]