I’m about to drop some serious power on you folks. This is one monstrous lappy, and I don’t mean that its large. Just look at the image. It looks like a normal, every day lappy. I can tell you that its not. Certainly not for US$6,995. So, what do you get for all that dough? Here are the specs for the 1Beyond GoFlex317: 2.4 or 2.66GHz Quad-core Intel CPU or a 2.6 or 3.0GHz Core2 Duo CPU, 3 SATA2 100 or 200GB drives in RAID-5 format, nVidia 8800 PCI-Express card with 512MBs of RAM, 1920×1200 17″ widescreen display, and up to 4GBs of RAM. The $7k price tag gets you the 2.66GHz Quad Core bad boy, of course. It you were to take one of the Core2 Duo’s, you might as well buy a MacBook Pro, but that Quad is really, really inticing!

written by Tyler Regas

Have you heard of YouMail? I hadn’t until yesterday when I received their press release. Apparently they’ve added a speech-to-text feature which is currently in beta for their voicemail service. I checked out their operation and found that they actually take over your voicemail services from your carrier. I found that interesting and appealing until I tried to set up an account on my personal Sprint phone (I have a RAZR V3m, in case you’re curious, and yes, it sucks. I’m still waiting for the 3G iPhone) and found out the Sprint charges $0.20 per forwarded call unless you call them up and request the function. I opted out, though don’t blame YouMail. The service, otherwise, is free and looks like it might be a nice system, though I wouldn’t know, SPRINT!

written by Tyler Regas

Plantronics, the big hands-free headset maker which operates mostly in the enterprise space providing headphones for those annoying call centers which pester you to buy towel sets during dinner, has announced their new Discovery line of Bluetooth headsets. First out is the black version for US$149.95. Gold and pink versions will be out in May. Aside from being billed as fashionable, they also feature noise elimination and dynamic volume control technologies for better call quality, though that remains to be seen.

written by Tyler Regas

Get ready for June, because Sprint is going to rock the mobile handset world with its exclusive Samsung Instinct phone… maybe. Sprint’s marketing power behind it: “Finally, an amazing touch-screen phone with a network to back it up”. The “network” is Sprint’s existing EV-DO Rev. A network which it is dubbing the Now Network. There’s a suggestive statement in there somewhere, I just know it. I’m not going to go into details about the handset, but I will ship you off to be hyponotized by Sprint’s new site promoting the Instinct. All we know is that its coming in June. Maybe.

written by Tyler Regas

Dubbed the CloudBook Max, Everex’s new version sports Via’s C7-M ULV processor which runs at 1.6GHz, 1GB of RAM with room for 2GBs, an 80GB Hard Disk Drive, 8.9″ 1024 x 600 widescreen display, integrated support for WiMAX 802.16e and 802.11b/g, a gigabit Ethernet Port, VGA out, 3 (count ‘em! three!!) USB 2.0 Ports, an integrated card reader, two 2MP webcams, and a 2600mAh LiIon battery rated for 4 hours. WiMAX itself is via Sprint’s upcoming Xohm 4G network, so if you have Sprint now, you can be really happy later on when this thing ships. The kink in the wire, however, comes in the form of Windows Vista Home Edition, which is apparently shipped standard on the unit. 

Unfortunately, we must look back to the inauspicious introduction of the previous minuscule CloudBook which, when delivered to buyers, couldn’t be set up unless you knew the obscure capability of Xwindow servers to move windows from anywhere by holding the ALT key. They’ve also saddled the Max with an unfortunately untrue slogan, “Ubiquitous internet has finally arrived…” This is untrue for two reasons. One, WiMAX will not be rolled out everywhere at the same time. Two, 802.11b/g is widespread but by no stretch of the imagination ubiquitous. We also have no idea of how much it will cost, exactly when it will be available with any greater detail than mid-2008, and via whom. More when we get it.

written by Tyler Regas

In yet another super cool and open gesture, OpenMoko has announced that they have made the CAD files for their Neo handsets and hardware available to anyone who wants them. The aim is to promote the growth of open source products and to allow anyone to bring advancement and innovation to their system. The CAD files and associated data are available under the ShareAlike Creative Commons license and you can grab them here (NOTE: No registration required, just download!).

written by Tyler Regas

I have to say, the Mobile World Congress in Spain has really grown up to be a big, strapping lad, and nVidia is a big part of that right now. Sadly, nVidia is only playing with Microsoft, so the other kids will just have to wait their turn. nVidia is now pimping their APX 2500 Ultra-Low Power GeForce chipset for Windows Mobile devices. What you see to your left is nVidia’s reference platform, a development mule designed to allow developers the tools they need to get it working.

Now lets look at the specs. The chipset is designed to run optimally in WinMo. Get this: nVidia is saying the chipset can enable a handheld device to display 10 hours of 720p video. That’s 1280×720. It can also handle HDMI, composite, and S-video outputs, as well as external monitors up to 1280×1024. For 3D acceleration, we’re talking OpenGL ES 2.0 and Direct3D Mobile support and programmable pixel, vertex, and lighting shaders. Finally it can encode and decode H.264, MPEG-4, decode WMV, AAC, AMR, MP3, and WMA, and can handle 12MP camera sensors.

How many of you wanna bet that this means XBOX Mobile before this time next year? At the very least, an announcement. As for availability, they are sampling now and will be entering full production by the end of the second Quarter this year.

written by Tyler Regas

HTC, clearly burned out from their stellar product naming sessions for the Touch, Touch Dual, and the Touch Cruise, has announced the P3470 for Europe this year. Hmm. This here is a Windows Mobile 6 powered device with a 2.8″ “flat” touchscreen featuring HTC’s TouchFlo technology. I’m not sure what they mean by “Flat” but I’m sure it’ll be cool when we get to touch it. Otherwise it features a 200MHz TI OMAP processor, 256MBs of Flash ROM, 128MBs of RAM, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, a 2MP camera, a microSD memory expansion slot (with a 1GB card in it), has integrated GPS, and works on the 850/800/1800/1900 GSM/GPRS, and EDGE networks.

The integrated SatNav (just GPS to us Yanks) uses Tom Tom maps, so it should work quite well. The maps are included on the included microSD card. Orange will be rolling it out in the UK, France, Spain, and The Netherlands later this month for €449. Not bad. Not bad at all, if it weren’t for WinMo. Sorry, Statesiders, no word on a US launch.

written by Tyler Regas

In case you hadn’t noticed, the Apple iPhone has already had a significant impact on the mobile industry, and the new SonyEriccson Xperia X1 is a clear example of that. This sexy, sleek, curvy device to the left is a touchscreen beast, for sure, but it also hides a full QWERTY keyboard. The other interesting aspect of this handset is that its SonyErricson’s first handset which runs Windows Mobile, in this case WinMo 6. I have a problem with that, but we’ll just have to see.

For specs, the X1 features a 3.2MP camera with a dorky “Camera Light” instead of a flash, a 3″ 800×480 touch display, and optical joystick (?), Bluetooth, unspecified WLAP, an FM radio, integrated Java, aGPS functionality, and a gaggle of WinMo applications. It also comes with something Sony likely developed for it called XPERIA Panels, which is likely the interface you can sorta see above. SonyErricson says it will be available worldwide by mid-2008, but didn’t offer pricing. It will work on GSM/GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, and HSUPA networks and will ship in black and silver.

written by Tyler Regas