Monday, June 22, 2009
We’ve been singularly cellularly obsessed here at SlashGear over the past seven days, and it’ll come as no surprise that the run-up to the iPhone 3G S has occupied much of our attention. The new Apple smartphone may not look much different to its predecessor, but if our hands-on first impressions are anything to go by, Cupertino have done their best to make the user-experience as polished as the casing. Still, it’s not just shiny Apple hardware that’s caught our eye this week; Novatel Wireless’ GSM MiFi 2352 piqued our interest when we talked to the company themselves on Monday, and then proceeded to impress us considerably in our full review.
Elsewhere, Nokia’s long-awaited N97 finally reached North American customers’ hands, ours included, and you can find our unboxing and first-impressions here. It’s a decent smartphone, and understandably the flagship of Nokia’s line, but can it hold up in the face of iPhone’s upgraded OS 3.0 software? We’ll have our full review this coming week.
If it’s a QWERTY keyboard you’re after, but you prefer your phones berry-flavored, then the news that both Verizon and Sprint would be offering the BlackBerry Tour 9630 in the near future will probably come as some relief. 3G, GPS, for all the specs check out the official RIM video. Finally, Samsung took the wraps off of the Omnia Pro B7610, complete with a glorious OLED touchscreen display and slide out ‘board.
It’s not all been smartphones, though. SlashGear sat in front of a small screen, in the shape of Fujitsu-Siemen’s Amilo Mini Ui 3520 netbook, and a big screen (albeit a virtual one) with the Q-London 3D 80″ Video Eyewear. Oh, and in the name of extreme destruction, we watched Lenovo’s ThinkPad T400s go head to head with a 26,000lb DOW truck. If you want to see whether a slender ultraportable notebook can cope with getting comfortable between rubber and gravel, check out the video.
Finally, Microsoft confirmed that the Zune HD PMP will use NVIDIA’s Tegra chipset, making us even more keen to see what this potential-iPod-killer (yes, we know, a cliché if ever there was one) brings to the table. And for your high-definition home entertainment, PopcornHour delivered their C200 Blu-ray ready media-streamer. If you’ve ever looked at your media collection and wished there was a set-top box that could handle it all without breaking a sweat, this is the gadget for you.
Elsewhere, Nokia’s long-awaited N97 finally reached North American customers’ hands, ours included, and you can find our unboxing and first-impressions here. It’s a decent smartphone, and understandably the flagship of Nokia’s line, but can it hold up in the face of iPhone’s upgraded OS 3.0 software? We’ll have our full review this coming week.
If it’s a QWERTY keyboard you’re after, but you prefer your phones berry-flavored, then the news that both Verizon and Sprint would be offering the BlackBerry Tour 9630 in the near future will probably come as some relief. 3G, GPS, for all the specs check out the official RIM video. Finally, Samsung took the wraps off of the Omnia Pro B7610, complete with a glorious OLED touchscreen display and slide out ‘board.
It’s not all been smartphones, though. SlashGear sat in front of a small screen, in the shape of Fujitsu-Siemen’s Amilo Mini Ui 3520 netbook, and a big screen (albeit a virtual one) with the Q-London 3D 80″ Video Eyewear. Oh, and in the name of extreme destruction, we watched Lenovo’s ThinkPad T400s go head to head with a 26,000lb DOW truck. If you want to see whether a slender ultraportable notebook can cope with getting comfortable between rubber and gravel, check out the video.
Finally, Microsoft confirmed that the Zune HD PMP will use NVIDIA’s Tegra chipset, making us even more keen to see what this potential-iPod-killer (yes, we know, a cliché if ever there was one) brings to the table. And for your high-definition home entertainment, PopcornHour delivered their C200 Blu-ray ready media-streamer. If you’ve ever looked at your media collection and wished there was a set-top box that could handle it all without breaking a sweat, this is the gadget for you.
Novatel Wireless’ MiFi intelligent personal hotspot was one of our top 5 gadgets from ShowStoppers back in April, and had floored us a few months earlier in Barcelona. Having released their CDMA EVDO Rev.A MiFi 2200 on Verizon and Sprint to very positive reaction, the company is now launching its GSM 3G HSPA model, the MiFi 2352. As well as the ability to share a single mobile broadband connection among up to five WiFi users, the MiFi 2352 brings a few new tricks to the table; check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
For the full rundown of what’s in the MiFi box, check out our video unboxing. Basically, in its SIM-free form as you see here, Novatel Wireless supply a global power-adapter with various plug inserts, a USB to microUSB cable, rechargeable 1,530mAh battery and a small printed Getting Started guide. The MiFi 2352 supports various connection speeds, from quadband (850/900/1800/1900MHz) GPRS/EDGE up to triband (900/1900/2100MHz) UMTS HSUPA/HSDPA. Network-depending, you can theoretically see up to 7.2Mbps downlink rates and up to 5.76Mbps uplink rates.
There’s no driver disc, because there needn’t be any drivers. As standard Novatel require no connection manager – the software Verizon supply with their CDMA MiFi is their own decision; Sprint’s version uses no such app – presuming you’re using the 2352’s WiFi connection. Setup is as speedy as dropping in your SIM, holding down the single button until the lights begin blinking, and then waiting for the MiFi to start spitting out a wireless connection. The default SSID is a sensible “MiFi_2352″ and by navigating to “http://www.mifi” you access the device’s locally-hosted homepage showing the number of connected clients (up to 5 are supported simultaneously), connection details and battery status.
Since sharing a capped HSPA data connection via an unsecured WiFi network seems a recipe for overage charges or disconnection, the first step for most users will be accessing the admin pages and setting up WEP, WPA or WPA2 encryption. Thankfully that’s straightforward with the MiFi’s basic but speedy UI; there are also options for MAC filtering and recording various logs of WiFi connections and modem events. The MiFi can be loaded with up to six “internet profiles”, each with corresponding settings to a different SIM; that way, if you regularly switch between carriers (say, if traveling) then it’s simple to flick between the presets.
As on a full-sized router, there’s also port filtering support, the ability to set custom permitted applications, port forwarding, a switchable DHCP server and VPN pass-through support. Unlike a normal router there’s also an optional power management setting which can shut the MiFi down after between 2 or 60 minutes of idle time. Once you’ve made all the tweaks you want, you can backup the settings to a connected computer.
For the full rundown of what’s in the MiFi box, check out our video unboxing. Basically, in its SIM-free form as you see here, Novatel Wireless supply a global power-adapter with various plug inserts, a USB to microUSB cable, rechargeable 1,530mAh battery and a small printed Getting Started guide. The MiFi 2352 supports various connection speeds, from quadband (850/900/1800/1900MHz) GPRS/EDGE up to triband (900/1900/2100MHz) UMTS HSUPA/HSDPA. Network-depending, you can theoretically see up to 7.2Mbps downlink rates and up to 5.76Mbps uplink rates.
There’s no driver disc, because there needn’t be any drivers. As standard Novatel require no connection manager – the software Verizon supply with their CDMA MiFi is their own decision; Sprint’s version uses no such app – presuming you’re using the 2352’s WiFi connection. Setup is as speedy as dropping in your SIM, holding down the single button until the lights begin blinking, and then waiting for the MiFi to start spitting out a wireless connection. The default SSID is a sensible “MiFi_2352″ and by navigating to “http://www.mifi” you access the device’s locally-hosted homepage showing the number of connected clients (up to 5 are supported simultaneously), connection details and battery status.
Since sharing a capped HSPA data connection via an unsecured WiFi network seems a recipe for overage charges or disconnection, the first step for most users will be accessing the admin pages and setting up WEP, WPA or WPA2 encryption. Thankfully that’s straightforward with the MiFi’s basic but speedy UI; there are also options for MAC filtering and recording various logs of WiFi connections and modem events. The MiFi can be loaded with up to six “internet profiles”, each with corresponding settings to a different SIM; that way, if you regularly switch between carriers (say, if traveling) then it’s simple to flick between the presets.
As on a full-sized router, there’s also port filtering support, the ability to set custom permitted applications, port forwarding, a switchable DHCP server and VPN pass-through support. Unlike a normal router there’s also an optional power management setting which can shut the MiFi down after between 2 or 60 minutes of idle time. Once you’ve made all the tweaks you want, you can backup the settings to a connected computer.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
ASUS’ Eee PC T91 convertible touchscreen netbook should have been on sale in the UK for several weeks now, but the 8.9-inch tablet has been suspiciously absent from online and bricks-and-mortar retail stores. According to what a company official told AsusTablet, that delay is due to a “logistical mishap” in distribution; we can apparently expect the netbook to arrive in stores from Monday June 22nd.
The ASUS representative did not go on to explain the exact nature of the “mishap”, although they were at pains to point out that the T91 is still shipping. It’s also unclear whether the delay will impact shipments of the netbook outside of the UK; the T91 was supposed to begin shipping in the US this week.
Buyers of the tablet will get an Intel Atom Z520 processor, 1GB of RAM and a 16GB SSD. What makes the T91 interesting is its rotating display, which can be folded flat against the keyboard and thus leaving the netbook as a touchscreen slate. Standard and 3G versions are expected.
The ASUS representative did not go on to explain the exact nature of the “mishap”, although they were at pains to point out that the T91 is still shipping. It’s also unclear whether the delay will impact shipments of the netbook outside of the UK; the T91 was supposed to begin shipping in the US this week.Buyers of the tablet will get an Intel Atom Z520 processor, 1GB of RAM and a 16GB SSD. What makes the T91 interesting is its rotating display, which can be folded flat against the keyboard and thus leaving the netbook as a touchscreen slate. Standard and 3G versions are expected.
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