The Manly Man

Steve Jobs is playing for keeps as is evident by the moves he has made with the inception of the iPod and the iPhone. Love him or hate him, Apple has fought back from the brink with hit after hit and it looks like they’re here for the long haul. But that’s not what’s on everybody’s tongue right now. Enter stage left: iSlab, or iSlate or iThingy. Whatever you want to call it, it seems destined to be the next best thing since toilet tissue.

Just the mere rumor of its existence has sent shivers down the spines of large companies and has News Papers and Magazines clamoring for a Digi-Saviour. Can Apple do to the print industry what it did for the music industry? Honestly, our money is on Jobs. He’s a mad genius when it comes to this sort of thing, and the buzz alone is guaranteed to bring some high-rollers to the table. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Harper-Collins, and Condé Nast are already in talks over the rumored Tablet, and we are pretty sure there will be more. If you’re a non-believer, that’s fine. Consider yourself in good company, but the rumored specs paint a very pleasant picture.

Imagine a kindle – but in color and a larger 10 -11” screen, not to mention ten times sexier. Total access to your library of music anywhere you go and the ability to buy more in a web-based version of i-Tunes that downloads songs over wifi – or better yet, a 3G cellphone network like Verizon’s. It may also have a “Best of TV” service offering a subscription to your favorite Television shows. The inclusion of games is a no brainer, and a faster processor and larger hard disk space can only help matters. Now the clincher – the tablet will reportedly have facial recognition software that will recognize users and perhaps perform tasks meant for specific persons using a front facing camera. Maybe it will be like the chair settings in your car where you just hit the 3^{rd button and it automatically adjusts the seat because you’re too tall for your wife’s settings and she insists on driving your car even though you bought her a car for Christmas, but she likes the feel of your car better. Or maybe that’s just us.}

^{The price range should be inside of $1,000, and could possibly be subsidized if it debuts with a cell phone carrier. If anyone out there needs someone to test this bad boy out, count us in.}

^Source:WSJ

UPDATE:

ok, so alot of the above information turned out to be wrong…or atleast a bit premature. This doesn’t mean all the information is garbage though. For starters, the camera may still be in the works. Soooooo glad we were wrong about the price. In approximately 60 days, you can pick one up for as low as 499.99 (16GB)with the 3G unlocked version coming in at a cool 629 (16GB).

Now there has been a lot of chatter, mostly by Geeks with super-powered devices, saying that the iPad doesn’t live up to the hype. I’ll have to agree to a point. But c’mon, what device does? Just because you thought the iPad was going to levitate, pay bills, make your bed, etc… and (surprise!) it doesn’t you wanna get all salty? Look, for 500 bucks your getting a premier device that works super well, and does everything it needs to. The iWork suite looks fantastic, browsing magazines and online content looks like an absolute pleasure to do, and gaming is pretty nice. It is the first and last device I want with me on any trip. Now I don’t own anything Mac branded and even I can tell that this is a great device. Jobs and his boys just aren’t catering to those of us who happen to know what the device should be able to do such as multi-tasking and voice calling with video telephony over wifi etc.

Now to a few more details about the device…

The device is 9.7 inches diagonally, and .5 inches thin. It’s a bit heavy (depending on what your comparing it to) at 1.5 lbs. Battery life is supposed to be 10 hrs of moderate use, and almost a month at standby, though something tells me that if your online playing games, you are gonna need to plug that sucker in a lot sooner. Now I have to give kudos to Apple for making their own performance chip. I really like the way they take a really hands on approach to their product. It really seems like they care about what they put out there.

You have access to three main stores now..iTunes of course, App store, and now the iBook Store. The Screen is multi-touch capacitive and is LED backlit. Take a look at the video below:

source:Apple

If you have T-mobile and have been a loyal customer for years…than you can’t upgrade for a discount on this phone. Sorry – suck it up. Its available at 179.00 for people who are starting a new line and there is only one type of plan you can get if you are buying at discount. For ballers, you can get the phone unlocked at 529.00 and just add a simcard with whatever plan you want and be done with it all.

Here is the phone break down:

Hardware:

1Ghz Snapdragon processor with 3.7 inch capacitive display. It has 512 MB of Flash Memory and 512 MB of RAM. It comes with 4GB Micro SD card which you can upgrade to 32 GB when you get the urge. Camera is 5 Mega-pixels with LED Flash and 2x zoom. Its got Blue-tooth/Stereo Blue-tooth and Wifi as well. With all of that it only comes out to be about 11.5 mm thick!

Software: Runs Android 2.1 (Eclair). Google’s newest iteration. With such a fast processor, I’m guessing this phone will most likely see its fair share of upgrades.

Distinctions: What makes this phone different from say…the iPhone? It can multitask. Also, it doesn’t have multi-touch capabilities. It has voice recognition and dictation elements native only to this device. Not a whole lot else. What this means is that you can’t pinch to zoom in on web pages or photos, but you can say “Navigate to McDonald’s” and it will give you turn by turn directions to the nearest McDonald’s which I think is pretty sweet. You can also dictate a note or a text message which can come in handy for those who just can’t seem to stay away while driving.

Interface seems clean and snappy from what I can tell. Really like the moving wallpaper. They even respond to interactions! You can check the video below to see for yourself:

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Summary:

So all in all a pretty solid phone. Good-looking, but not terribly sexy in my opinion. Great functionality, but not quite ground-breaking or game changing. Smart phone? Yes. Superphone? Nah, not quite.

Update:

Eligible users with data plans can now upgrade to the Nexus One on T-mobile for $279. Those who paid $379 will get 100 bucks in a rebate check from Google. Sounds good to me!

image from Gizmodo.com

Have you guys heard yet? Google is coming out with a “Google Phone” called the Nexus (as of right now). According to the rumors floating around, they will be selling the phone themselves much like Apple is doing their iPhone. Gizmodo.com seems to have uncovered the price for this puppy and its about what you would expect. According to the leaked documents, the phone can be had for about $530 unlocked and $180 with a two year contract on T-mobile’s network. The clincher is the fact that you only have one choice and its not even the best plan! No unlimited Data. I suspect Tmobile is trying to take it slow and not cripple their network and make it as sucky as ATT’s. Perhaps its a wise move. At any rate, the phone is a beast with its 1Ghz processor and snappy android 2.1 UI. Check Tmonews.com for more pics and vids.

Update:

Those bastards at Engadget have gotten their mitts on their very own Nexus phone! They also have a pretty nice video of it in action. It looks super fast, and full of interesting little UI tweeks that we havent seen before on an Android device like interactive wallpapers and a separate applications screen. A drawback in my opinion is the same old dusty keyboard (can’t they just use the one from HTC’s Sense UI???) Also saw a microphone on the keyboard…dictation abilities anyone? You can check it all out for yourself here

Hey Yall,

so I got my hands on the Behold II for T mobile and am presently testing it out. The review will come soon enough…sorry kinda got lazy over the weekend! But never fear, I have some shots below to wet the appetite (as if you haven’t already seen pics and vids already). I will leave you with this. It feels really nice, and for those who are hating on it…chances are, they either a) didn’t have the phone for very long, or b) didn’t really have the phone at all and are copying off of what others are saying. The phone really flies in some areas like picture taking and speaker phone quality, and are mediocre in other areas such as battery life (which can be assuaged by some tinkering). The full review coming up!

Update:

Check out the video Review right here:

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Hey guys,

so lets just get down to business here. If you are a guy (or gall) who is busy, and needs to stay connected business-wise as well as socially we would definitely say this phone is for you. Its not the perfect phone, but it will definitely suit your needs. So lets get to it!

Hardware:

We like the way it feels in hand. Its sturdy enough to be launched as a projectile while staying true enough to the course to hit its target. However, since it’ll run you over 300 smackers on a 2 year contract, we doubt you would let it leave your person that easily, but we’re just sayin’. Anyway, the highly glossy resistive screen is much nicer in person than in picture. It’s also a lot more responsive than you would think. We’re suckers for capacitive screens, but we’d make the switch with all this phone has to offer. The silver lining is something that AT&T hasn’t x-nayed from its version of the Touch Pro2 and we like it. It ads a certain amount of class and sex appeal that the modern man should have. Definitely turns heads in the board-room or at the coffee shop. In a perfect world it would be a little thinner, but we will survive.

Its running a 528Mghz processor which is definitely noticeable. There is barely any lag in normal tasks. We had lots of different programs running at the same time, and things still seemed nice and zippy fast. The 3.6 inch screen is great and loading internet pages is great. I also love the zoom bar at the bottom. True, you probably won’t use it all that often, but the option is there…and that’s what we really want isn’t it?Also the tilt feature, though nice…is a bit over-rated. After having it for a little while, the mechanism is still sturdy, but a little looser than it was out of the box. Its great for avoiding glare but not too much else in our opinion.

Keyboard:

Everything you’ve heard about the keyboard is true. We really can’t think of a hard keyboard on any other phone that beats the one on the TP2. It’s as close to perfect as we can tell. Little touches like the lighting for the Alt Keys and the extra spacing set this keyboard ahead of the pack.

Software:

It’s Windows 6.5, but you don’t have to know if you don’t want to. That’s the beauty of HTC’s Touch Flo 3D with “Sense.” Now we all know that Window’s mobile platform isn’t exactly easy on the eyes, and HTC fills in the gap almost flawlessly. In the video you will see how snappy the skin is, as well as beautiful. It makes normal tasks that much more interesting. You scroll through the main nav-bar with a swipe of the finger or stylus and which takes you to the main areas of interest such as stocks, contacts, weather, and internet. All and all, we’d say its HTC’s best performance yet.

Overall:

The overall consensus is not surprising. Its a well-rounded and extremely functional phone. The little things such as speakerphone by turning the phone on its face, and the zoom bar are what really sets this phone apart from other smart phones. It makes the experience that much better, and we applaud you HTC. Again, it could be slimmer,(Droid anyone?) but we’ll definitely take it as is. Check out the video for more tid-bits and a view of the phone in action. Special shout out to Joel for the vid

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DRRROOOOOOOIIIIIIIIID!

I’m actually a T-mobile lover myself…Hey Mrs. Jones . However, I’ve got to say I am really pleasantly surprised at these Verizon Commercials. Very clever,  and funny appealing to the Tekki  in all of us. This commercial is probably my favorite so far…well besides the misfit toys that is. But take a look. If your a wuss, I’d be cautious here!

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Ok, so this really isn’t news right now, but I hadn’t gotten around to posting about this phone. It’s the Nokia N900, which by the way is available for pre-order right now! Now, I love my phones, and I’m always looking for something that has the right balance of sophistication, business savvy, as well as fun functionality. Now if the promo-vid is to be believed, this phone just about has it all. It looks like it can keep up with your slight A.D.D. as well as any device on the market right now and has the horsepower to do it clocking in at 600MHz, 1GB dedicated to application memory, and 256MB of RAM. It has a full QWERTY keyboard, and 3.5mm headphone jack which is a definite plus. It also has some nifty additions such as TV-out and an FM Tuner. Really interested in seeing how Maemo5 works (the Linux based interface we see in the video) and for a small $650.00 someone can buy this for me!

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