Well, Palm is getting a tad desperate sounding. Instead of dropping the price of their very nice but also very old T|X mobile device, they’re offering a relatively useless Zire Z22 for free. I can see a number of issues with this. First, Palm apparently can’t see a way of reducing the T|X’s price. They could easily cause a small rash of excited sales if they did. Second, if someone is looking for a powerful PDA, they’re not interested in a free pocket calculator. Third, if they’re in the market now, they’re far more likely to seek out more recent devices, and that’s not a Palm T|X. Maybe they just need to clear some shelves for the next models. A guy can dream!

written by Tyler Regas

If you do GIS mapping with GPS gear, you may find the new Magellan MobileMapper 6 to be of great interest. Magellan’s new ruggedized device is based on WinMo 6, features Bluetooth, an integrated 802.11b/g radio, a 2MP camera for visual record keeping, 128MBs of RAM, an SD card slot (not HC, though, 4GB max), the usual color touchscreen, all wrapped in a slick new case.

There is no specific information regarding pricing and availability, but Magellan does state that the device will compete in price with consumer GPS devices. This likely means that we’re looking at a price of anywhere from US$800-1,500. It is, after all, an enterprise device aimed at the forestry, agro, petroleum, utilities and other government and natural resource industries. No product page just yet.

written by Tyler Regas

AT&T has announced that they are now officially carrying the Palm Centro. Nothing really groundbreaking here. Ma Bell is also vending it for US$99. The price breakdown goes thusly: US$349 list, US$199 with 2-year contract, US$100 mail-in rebate, end price is US$99. The only diff is that the AT&T handset comes in Glacier White with weird, greenish number keys.

written by Tyler Regas

The first question is, “Does this qualify as a UMPC?” Not really, unless the ASUS Eee PC counts, as well. Regardless, this is one slick piece of work, and Engadget doesn’t seem to think that there is any chance this could be a fakey, either. Overall, it specs out as a smaller-than-usual HP lappy. What’s odd is the 8.9″ scratch-resistant display with a resolution of 1366×766. Not that OS really care what resolution they display at, but its not your common raster output. Sadly, we don’t know the chipset or other specs, but it does come in an anodized aluminum case and offers an optional SSD. It weighs in at 2.5 lbs. and will apparently offer Windows or Linux. I’m guessing it will price out at US$1,499. We’ll see.

written by Tyler Regas

Travel much? Sprint’s pretty sure it now has the phone for you in the new ACE worldphone. Why do they think that? Possibly because the Ace is one of the world’s first combination GSM and CDMA handsets out there. This all but guarantees that it should work anywhere there are towers and Sprint has roaming deals. Sprint claims 180 countries worldwide.

On the down side, the handset runs WinMo 6 Smartphone Edition. Sprint doesn’t have a lock on the phone, either. As you can see, it looks like Samsung’s new BlackJack II (mostly because it is), AT&T’s new Ultra World Handset. So much for exclusivity. If you need more details, take a look here. Sprint’s site is no longer formatted to allow for links to their individual product offerings. Sorry Sprint, but you may be losing a sale to AT&T.

written by Tyler Regas

Elonex, the UK-based PC manufabber, has announced their swank new One which will run for a mere £99 (around US$195) and is being targeted at, you guessed it, the educational market. Aside from it weighing one (1) kilo (approx. 2.2 pounds), being ruggedized for kids, and running Linux, there’s not much else known about this new and enigmatic device. However, the fact that it looks like an escapee from the IBM PS/2 era could suggest that IBM had a hand in developing it. Why not! Elonex won’t reveal any technical specifications of the system, claiming that specifications aren’t necessary to a quality education. Elonex will be showing the One off at The Education Show 2008 in the UK later this month.

written by Tyler Regas

MTRON, a storage devices company headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, has announced that by April of this year they will be mass producing 128GB 1.8″ SSD units for use in laptops and other mobile systems. MTRON claims that these devices, unlike current models, will come in at a lower cost. MTRON claims a read rate of 120MB/sec and a write rate of 100MB/sec and an almost 50% power savings over traditional platter-type drives. Stay tuned for more details as we get them.

written by Tyler Regas

I love Apple, but there are a number of areas in which they fail, some of them miserably. In the case of who I will call Edward, Apple has apparently dropped the ball completely. Edward bought an Apple MacBook 2.16GHz model, in white, in the last week of January, 2006. All Apple computers come with a one year warranty to cover any failures or manufacturing defects. Apple’s process is to vet the issue over the phone and, if the support need is deemed valid, they send you a box to ship them your system. Apple has denied Edward service for his issue. Continue reading »

written by Tyler Regas

Polaroid may have announced the death of its groundbreaking instant film product line, but its not abandoning the ideals set forth by Dr. Land. Polaroid has teamed up with the innovative ZINK team to be one of the first companies to offer a ZINK Zero Ink printer. So, what the heck is a ZINK printer?

Simply put, ZINK is a new kind of inkless printing process which relies on the paper itself to create full color images. All you do is buy paper and take pictures. No loading ink cartridges. All you need to do is what you see in the image. We don’t have any additional details right now, but I’m working on it now.

written by Tyler Regas