Granted, I’m not a huge fan of Sony these days, but I can see that they’re starting to work harder, and that means something. It doesn’t hurt that this Mylo is sweetness and light as devices go.  The first model was fugly. Here’s the black Mylo2 (above), and the white Mylo2.

written by Tyler Regas

When I first saw that it was a 13.3″ ruggedized laptop, I was prepared for the first widescreen lappy that was happy in the mud. I can’t say I’m disappointed, but 4:3 formats seem so passe and old these days. Regardless, GETAC gets it on with the elements quite nicely with their new B300 unit. It features an Intel Merom CPU at 1.6GHz, 512MBs of RAM (up to 4GB), an 80GB SATA drive (up to 160GB), a waterproof membrane keyboard, and a load of options to please the ultimate geek on the go (in Borneo?).

Aside from the usual, you can also get GSM/GPRS, a 1200 nit backlit display which can be seen in direct sunlight, an optional waterproof backlit keyboard, GPS via its internal antenna, and double on everything, please! Need a second hard drive? Done. Need Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GSM, and GPS? Done. Need to drop it in the pool? Done. Need to check Gmail during a monsoon? Done. If that’s not quite cool enough, I’m still waiting on details on their Tablet PC. OOh! Rugged!!

written by Tyler Regas

You will be forgiven if the only thing you can think of when you here the name “Gizmondo” is company exec Stefan Eriksson smashing a Ferrari Enzo into a pole on California’s famed Pacific Coast Highway in 2006. Though it had sold poorly in the UK for a few months, Tiger Telematic’s brought the Gizmondo to the US, where it continued to languish, eventually driving the company into bankruptcy. Of course, Stefan Eriksson being involved with organized crime didn’t help much either. Well, one of the primary founders, Carl Freer of Gizmondo has come back, said he apologizes for allowing everything to fall apart, that he believes in the product, and that he’s getting it all going again. Apparently, he feels bad about what happened and wants to make it up to the investors.

So, what is the Gizmondo, aside from another taco looking game console (see: Nokia N-Gage)? First of all, its based on Windows CE and is designed from the ground up to be a converged device. I won’t dive into the details willy-nilly, but it did have a nice display, a fast CPU, a goodly amount of RAM, GSM/GPRS radio, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS capabilities. Its biggest problems at the initial launch were high price and lack of games. Carl says now that it will be around US$99 and, if he can manage it, possibly free with carrier contracts. He also says that now have over 20 games with another 8 in production. They also have a company called Plextek who will build the units on spec, and a design for a widescreen model in the works. This might work out, after all!

written by Tyler Regas

Today kicks off the likely heated and monetarily stratospheric scrabble to ownership of the 700MHz bandwidth which the FCC is auctioning off. The 700MHz spectrum is what’s being referred to as “Beach Front Property” in the wireless space, meaning that its prime, high quality, Grade-A spectrum. Why? Because its the same spectrum used by Standard Definition TV, which is being phased out in favor of HD. As you well know, TV signals can do things over much longer ranges than other wireless spectrums can, and WiMax, a wireless technology which is more powerful and more advanced, is only now starting to roll out in a few limited markets. Continue reading »

written by Tyler Regas

Zumobi, a startup operation who has developed a tiled interface supposed to improve information retrieval for Windows Mobile devices, has partnered with Microsoft. For Microsoft’s part, the Redmond giant will start including the Zumobi application in their operating system. For my part, I signed up for an account and installed the application on my Palm Treo 700wx, which runs Windows Mobile 5. I don’t know if its the Treo or the application, which is in beta at the moment, but I found it to be exceedingly slow. Oh, and its free.

written by Tyler Regas

While I find some of the people in this trailer to be a little more than “off”, I think overall this looks really cool. I guess that makes me a MacHead.

written by Tyler Regas

Well, AT&T has finally done it, and not a minute too soon. AT&T is now offering enterprise specific plans for the iPhone. Combine this news with the confirmation that IBM is working on Lotus/Domino connectivity for “Apple products” (wink-wink, nudge-nudge, know what I mean?) and the nearing release of an official Apple SDK for the iPhone and you have a sparkling golden triangle of truth. I’m not going to quote the plan details here, primarily because they don’t make sense to me, but it seems like its a decent deal.

written by Tyler Regas

Meizu, the big Chinese digital audio playah makah which has a propensity for copying Apple’s products, has entered into a patent process for their M8 “MiniOne” iPhone clone. If you simply ignore the fact that a) its not an iPhone, b) it runs Windows Mobile 6, and c) that it will never legally come to the States, the M8 looks pretty neat. It sports a smaller case than the iPhone, a 533MHz ARM11 CPU, 128MBs of RAM, 4/8/16GB of on-board storage, supports GSM/EDGE/WCDMA, has both a 3MP and .3MP camera (ala Nokia N95), and has a touchscreen with a resolution of 720×480. To see its size compared to the iPhone, check here. Note, however, that the dimensional specifications cannot be confirmed. Additionally, pricing and availability information are not available.

written by Tyler Regas

I never really imagined I’d be offering any Zune content of any real consequence, but then I saw this. Apparently, a group (or just guy) named Pity4U and/or PityWare has created a tool called zAlternator. The free tool modifies how the Zune appears to Windows and itself, which allows it to become a generic Windows Portable Device or even an iPod! The iPod mode is in beta, though, so don’t pin many hopes on it. On the other hand, WPD mode will at least open up a larger world of media for Zune owners.

written by Tyler Regas