The HTC Magic is the second smart phone (after HTC Dream) to use Google’s Android platform. The phone offers significant upgrades to the previously released Android based phones. The latest Cupcake 1.5 update of Android offers features such as on-screen keyboard. It also allows HTC Magic to integrate Android Market to download Applications from the App Store.

The keyboard is missing on HTC Magic and uses the on-screen keyboard, much like iPhone. That’s strange because the keyboard was one of the greatest selling points of the phone. Even the newer Smartphone like Palm Pre uses an onboard keyboard which is being much appreciated. However, the virtual keyboard is quite user friendly and can be operated easily both in portrait and landscape modes. The layout of the button is slightly different than the previous model too. It has a trackball, Home key, Menu key, Back key, Search Key, Call and End buttons providing ample navigation options and making it easy to operate using one hand.

The Smartphone is also quite smaller and lighter than HTC Dream and feels good to hold with a capacitive touch screen which is bright, responsive and evenly backlit. The onboard 3.2 MP camera comes with improved performance, imaging capabilities, video capturing ability and enhanced media sharing and editing features. However, video calling is not supported.

As we discussed earlier, the significant improvement is the Google Android OS. The Android OS 1.5 comes with a new WebKit browser and JavaScript engines which provides a much richer browsing experience. The browser on the HTC Magic comes with a user friendly and efficient bookmarking system. Also, due to the new OS, the HTC Magic supports Bluetooth A2DP with simplistic pairing. The Wi-Fi connectivity on the HTC Magic is also much improved. The phone gets connected through a standard Ext-USB port instead of a standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

The phone functions also up to the mark with clear call reception. The call dialing and receiving has a very simple interface, which makes it quick. Furthermore, the phone also provides ample battery power for a full days worth of internet surfing, instant messaging, emailing, social networking, texting and calling.

The phone comes with preloaded YouTube App, Google Latitude, Android Market & Google Talk app. More Apps are also available to download from the App Store.

One can conclude that the new HTC Magic offers significant improvements over the previous model and is a great competitor for iPhone. It’s quite easy to use and handle and offers plenty of Apps to keep you energized and connected.

Palm is back! Palm launched its Pre as its latest entry to the smartphone market. The renowned PDA maker has finally come up with something to follow up its successful Treo series. More surprisingly, the company also created a completely original operating system called webOS. Finally, we just might have a worthy challenger to Apple’s iPhone.
The hardware

While the, final version of the hardware is yet to be released, Palm has gone to great lengths to bring its industrial design up to date, and they’ve landed a winner. The phone has a bit of a curve to its body both in the back and around the sides,. It’s slightly smaller than an iPhone when closed, slightly larger when open, and roughly the same width.Unlike the iPhone, Pre uses a slide-down QWERTY keyboard from underneath the screen in a portrait arrangement, Along the left side of the phone are volume buttons, and up top there’s a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and ringer on / off switch.A MicroUSB port lets your charge the phone or work with files for the device, though Palm is also excited over its Touchstone, an inductive charger that lets you just place the phone atop it for power.
Around back there’s a 3 megapixel camera with an LED flash which reps say can snap continuously without saving (a nice touch), and the back (as well as the battery) is removable. The first models may come with Bluetooth 2.1, Rev. A and 802.11b/g Evolution Data-Optimized ( EV-DO) or 3G GSM.

The software
Palm is implementing numerous programs in its webOS, but as far as facts are concerned, the operating system it’s developed is based on Linux.The user interface is impressive and at par with iPhone’s interface and HTC’s TouchFlo 3D. However, unlike the others, webOS provides true multitasking, allowing the user to switch between active apps. You don’t have to close and reopen, just shuffle through your programs. If you switch to another app, the UI scales back the program you’re in down to that deck of “cards,” then zooms up the new selection. All of the applications for the phone will be coded in standard CSS, XML, and JavaScript, which can be a walk in the park for its developers.

The release of the phone is slated for the “first half of 2009.
Palm has stated that it will make a concentrated effort to engage the community and bring the best of app development.

The Verdict

A lot we don’t know yet about the Pre, and with a device this new, you can never truly understand what the experience will be like until you put it through the test of an average day’s work. That said, Palm has made enormous strides with webOS and the Pre, both putting the brand back on the map. For now,only one thing is for certain: The smartphone game just got a whole lot more interesting.

Cellular phones have been a part of our daily life now. Almost everyone owns one and for those avid buyers of cellphones who gets to upgrade every now and then, having the latest mobile phone is always a must. Sonny Ericsson has proven yet again that every mobile models they have area always top of its class. Now offering the Sony Ericsson K660i, it is 3G enabled and can also act as your connectivity device. Get to enjoy faster download and with great browsing experience at the comfort of your own hands anytime and anywhere. With its size, browsing sites will be done via landscape and actually supports the RSS feeds. What is even fun about having this mobile is that it has web shortcuts using its keypad and be able to surf, watch and read emails anywhere. Its HSDPA makes it possible for a broadband like speed in your mobile. Downloading, sending emails, surfing can be done in a matter of seconds. 

This mobile phone would greatly appeal to everyone specially fashion forward people due to its impeccable design. Great news about this is that you can easily access latest news directly from your mobile screen and the news update is made possible by the RSS desktop widgets on your phone.  

Not only it is fashionable accessory for anyone out there, it is even efficient for drivers as it has navigation and map services on it. So your phone will literally take you to wherever you wish to go. This phone is even convenient especially when you attend different functions for you won’t need to bring a separate camera with you. The built in camera in this phone has viewfinder and specific menus via your in-phone imaging. Not only would you enjoy the photos that you can capture on your mobile as well as be able to get your own blog site using your phone. This feature would make attaching of videos and pictures easily. 

Exciting news about this phone doesn’t end there. As promised by Sony Ericsson, everything you wish to do is at the palm of your hand. Having the Sony Ericsson 660i would not require you to use a computer in editing and printing your photos for your phone could be easily connected to a printer to easily print an image taken from your phone. Isn’t it exciting that even though a love one is far away, it makes it possible for you to bridge the gap and talk to them real time via your phone screen while talking to them. 

Another nice feature of this phone is its ability to perform video call and be able to see the person you are talking to live and vice versa. Lastly, be entertained with the sounds recorded and saved on your K660i. Now you are assured that you will never be bored again as long as you have your Sony Ericsson K660i with you.

Normally, you’ll really feel that love is in the air when February starts. This is the so-called love month and this is also the time that people give special gifts to their loved ones and would normally get a kiss as a thank you gesture. Come to think of it, gifts can be given even though there’s no special occasion. It’s the same way with the kiss; it can be given at any day, any time and any where. But the kind of kiss that will be given should not be offensive to the public unless that is the intention. Nevertheless, the kiss is something that most people enjoy giving and doing especially to their loved ones.

The sad thing about the kiss is that it cannot be carried out if one person is far from the other. So people find alternative ways to get their kiss to the person they intend to give it. For people who would give this through SMS or text, they would type in “mwah” or
“ :-* ” to symbolize the kiss. There are those who would call the other person and tell them “mwah” too. This may be uncomfortable to some but to those people in-love, they wouldn’t mind getting their kiss in such ways.

For those really desperate in wanting to feel that kiss, there’s a gadget that can help you get that feeling of being kissed. This thingy is the KissPhone which was developed by a freelance inventor named George Koussourous. The gadget was invented in order for the people to really feel the kiss sent to them by another person. The KissPhone is able to detect the pressure, sucking force of the lips, percussion speed as well as the temperature while the kiss is being done. The artificial mouth on this gadget’s receptor is able to recreate the same parameters so the kiss that will be felt is the same as the other person did.

With this receptor, the user is able to download or even upload a kiss on the internet. They can even receive or leave a kiss in an answering machine. Sending and receiving a kiss from a far can also be done breezily. The kiss made can also be relayed to other individuals. They too can repeat the kiss which is saved on the phone. Another great feature is that customers can also receive a kiss from celebrities like Madonna or from an imaginary Hero. This is possible because of the kiss bank.

There is a downfall though. The KissPhone only works if the two people giving and receiving the kiss both have one. This gadget is recommended for those people who are in a long distance relationship and really want to feel each other’s kisses as if given personally. Just one tip though, make sure that you’re far from the public’s eye when you’re using the KissPhone. You don’t want them staring at you and looked grossed out while you’re kissing the phone.

Isn’t it annoying how sometimes we could not get a cellphone signal when you so urgently need to make a phone call? Or how sometimes we get cut off in the middle of a phone conversation just because the signal disappeared? Situations like these can get really frustrating, especially when it is important that we make that phone call and there are no other alternatives in sight.

MOGO Wireless hopes to address this concern with its newest offering, the MOGO wireless cellular amplifier. This gadget guarantees to boost your signal to an additional two bars. The claim is that it can work with most of the major mobile networks in the United States, such as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and Alltel, as long as the signal band is either 800 MHz or 1,900 MHz.

One nice thing about the MOGO wireless cellular amplifier is that it is simplicity in itself. The gadget consists of a simple antenna, a power adapter that can be plugged in either a USB input or a car power adapter, and the cable that connects the two. There is no need to attach any device whatsoever on your mobile phone. Moreover, there is no need to install any software or firmware on your cellphone unit.

Quite a handy way to stay connected, isn’t it? People who need to make calls on their mobile phones will certainly appreciate this added power to their signals. And as simple as the MOGO wireless cellular amplifier may seem to be, it really does work in boosting cellphone signals. The reported downside to this device, however, is that it may need a lot of power to get the signal going.

If you want this gadget, be ready to cough up some US$149 to get your own.

November came and went, and behold – the 3Skypephone is now available to the masses. As I blogged last October, the 3Skypephone is the lovechild that came out of a union of Skype, that well-established name in VoIP, and of the mobile network 3.

So, what is the lowdown on the 3Skypephone? Well, as promised, 3Skypephone users can use their Skype account to call and send instant messages to other Skype users for free. All you need to do is to press the central button with the Skype logo to open your Skype account. But Skype usage becomes free only after coughing up £10 to keep the service activated for 30 days. The 3 network must be used, however, for these Skype calls and IMs to be free. If the calls and the IMs are made outside the coverage of 3’s network, users are charged with roaming fees. Fair use fees are also applied if the Skype calls exceed 4,000 minutes and if the IMs exceed 10,000.

You want to make regular calls and send text messages using the 3Skypephone? That is entirely possible, but don’t expect them to come at reduced rates, since SkypeOut is not supported by the 3Skypephone. There are rumors, however, that the SkypeOut may become an optional feature for the 3Skypephone in 2008.

What other nifty features does the 3Skypephone have? It has:

• A launcher hotkey that can open websites and applications like Yahoo and Google Search, Windows Live Messenger, YouTube and Facebook.
• An mp3 player and bundled headset, with videos and mp3 tracks downloadable from Planet3.
• A 2-megapixel camera that works well outdoors with ample light, but not indoors and not without enough light.
• An impressive battery life that lasts three or four days.
• A multitask button at the side of the unit that will bring up the last six applications used.

More info is available at the 3Skypephone website.

I am not really surprised that Windows Vista snagged the top spot. Really, I am not. After all, I have been ranting about Vista for the past few weeks now myself.

So, what according to PC World are the 15 biggest tech disappointments of the year? Here is a rundown:

15. Amazon Unboxed. Apparently, Amazon’s attempt to enter the fray of entertainment on demand resulted in something clunky and inconvenient.

14. WiMax. All deals are off. Sprint and Clearwire will not be pushing through with their plans to bring WiMax to a broader base in the US anymore.

13. Social networks. There are just too many of them out there already, and they all look the same.

12. Internet security. It simply does not exist.

11. Microsoft’s Zune. The self-proclaimed iPod killer can’t even get close to its prey.

10. Wireless networks. All the nice new mobile phones that came out in 2007 are beyond awesome. The same cannot be said, however, of the wireless networks that carry them.

09. Office 2007. Some people are still trying to figure out how macros work in older versions. And then Office 2007, with its notorious Ribbon, shows up.

08. Apple Leopard. Who would have thought that the makers of the iPhone and iTouch would have a bad hit here?

07. VoIP. It was simply a bad year for VoIP.

06. The broadband industry. The big broadband ISPs in the US interfere with P2P downloading, to which they certainly do not have the right.

05. The iPhone. Even a thing of beauty has its flaws.

04. Yahoo. Stuck behind Google and got in a fix for supplying information on dissidents to the Chinese government. For shame.

03. Facebook Beacon. Creepy in the way they get info about you behind your back.

02. The High-Def Format War. Blu-ray vs. HD DVD? Who cares?

01. Windows Vista. Enough said.

The night of November 9, 2007 has come and gone. At 6.02pm that Friday night, the stores of Apple, O2 and Carphone Warehouse simultaneously opened its doors to allow the denizens of London and the rest of Britannia their first feel of the gadget of the year, none other than Apple’s much-hyped iPhone.

That Friday night has come and gone, but how was it? Did Apple exceed its expectations for establishing its foothold in the British market? Apparently, only sales figures for that night can say for sure, and naturally only Apple has this data. No one else in the blogosphere has it.

But while the iPhone launch last Friday did not reach the levels of mania that was seen in New York when the gadget of the year made its worldwide debut in June this year, what with around 600 people lining up some 100 hours prior to launch time, anyone can happily say that the British launch of the iPhone was more than fairly decent. There was an estimated 400 people crowding the doors of the Apple store in Regent Street in London that Friday night, and the atmosphere was certainly euphoric. It was a lot more quiet at the O2 store along Oxford Street and in the various Carphone Warehouse outlets all over London, but the excitement was definitely there.

Given that there is no available data regarding actual sales of the iPhone during launch day, judging from the 8,000 activation attempts that O2 claimed to have on the blogosphere grapevine, it seems that the sales of iPhone units, at least those sold by O2, were not so bad at all. In fact, it seemed quite a sunshiny deal that O2 landed on, especially since it is reported that two-thirds of O2 iPhone buyers are new subscribers.

It surely is sweet. I guess Apple really did good on the British launch day.

Joshua Topolsky of Engadget nailed it right on the head. If Google, this gigantic, multibillion name in the techie world, announces that it will be doing something, any competitor that it has in whatever plan that it has under its sleeve should at least have the sense to take Google a little more seriously, right? So why is Steve Ballmer, hallowed CEO of Microsoft, being so cocky when he said that Google’s move to get Android going “are just some words on paper right now”?

Okay, so Google does not have anything right now but a few announcements and the help of some friends, just some words on paper indeed. On the other hand, Microsoft’s very own Windows Mobile is licensed 150 different handset models and carried by some 100 different carriers. Windows Mobile will definitely be a hard nut to crack for Google’s Android.

But if Google can call the likes of T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel, Motorola, Samsung, LG and Intel friends who will give it a little help in this pet project, one can be certain that Android will not end up as just some words on paper right now, right? Something big has to come out soon, what with these big people gathered in one room together. Android is going to be big, and who knows? It just might give Windows Mobile a run for its money. And maybe give Symbian a little nudge, too.

This is so like Microsoft to be so ballsy, so arrogant about things like these. What did Steve Ballmer say about Google’s Android announcement? “Right now they have a press release, we have many, many millions of customers, great software, many hardware devices and they’re welcome in our world.”

But perhaps this is just how the game is played. Let us just see how it turns out.

What is Google really up to these days? Do they have a new mobile phone in the works, something similar with what Apple did with iPhone and which bloggers all over the tech world have now dubbed GPhone? Or are they just developing a new operating system that can be used by most mobile phones, something that will give Microsoft’s Windows Mobile a run for its money?

No one really knows for sure, and the industry, not to mention the blogosphere, is rife with so many rumors about what Google has up in its sleeve. Some analysts have it that Google’s current pet project is not really a physical phone itself, but rather an OS that can be downloaded into most kinds of mobile phones and which will give Google a pretty chunk of advertising money. If this is the case, many analysts state that the major mobile carriers will not take this move by Google lightly, because it poses a threat to their own bid for ads revenue over mobile Internet. Google’s purported move may also undermine the major carriers’ tight control over their own networks. Of course they would not want that.

But then again, The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Google is ironing out plans with Verizon, Sprint Mobile and T-Mobile to launch new handsets that will run on software platforms to be developed by Google. How true this one is, nobody really knows and the insiders are keeping mum about it.

If anything is certain, if Google does try to push its way into the mobile industry, it is going to be a tough climb for them. The analysts have it right; Google does not have the experience to compete in the mobile industry. But then again, a major search engine has yet to make a solid name when it comes to mobile Internet, so why shouldn’t Google want to be the first to do so?

We will all find out soon enough, anyhow.

Image Source: The New York Times