Engadget Mobile Gallery

DROID Phone Holder and Multimedia Station go for $30 apiece

by Paul Miller posted Oct 29th 2009 at 3:09PM

Already got your DROID pre-order in and wonder what else you can blow your non-assured holiday bonus on? Well, that Phone Holder car dock and Multimedia Station home dock (pictured, our hands-on gallery is here) have just gotten price tags: $30 a pop. About in line with the general worldwide dock population, but horrifically overpriced in comparison with our own homebrew dual-purpose solution.

i.Tech's SolarVoice Bluetooth headset could save the environment, not your look

by Tim Stevens posted Oct 28th 2009 at 8:41AM

Those looking for another excuse to wear a Bluetooth headset all the time just got it: iTech's $75 Dynamic SolarVoice 908. That awfully long title is applied to a conceptually simple device, a headset with a tiny solar panel on the side rated at five hours of talk time when fully charged. Sadly, though, there's no mention of how long you'll need to bask in the sun to get it there. (AC and USB charging are also naturally on offer.) Unlike earlier examples it's A2DP compliant, so it'll stream your tunes, and boasts integrated noise cancellation, so it's perfect for making your drunken barroom conversations a little more garbled.

Novatel MiFi 2200 gets new firmware, now stays on even when you don't need it

by Tim Stevens posted Oct 26th 2009 at 9:05AM

MiFi gets new firmware, now stays on even when you don't need it

If you're using one of the various MiFi incarnations, you may have been slightly annoyed at the thing shutting itself down after a few minutes of inactivity. It's a lovely feature to save juice when running disconnected -- a little less desirable when running on AC. There's a new firmware in town and it does away with such bad behavior whilst also adding better compatibility with the Nintendo DS and BlackBerry Curve. It's not an automatic update, though, so you'll need to dig through some menus to make the magic happen, but we're sure you can figure it out. (If you get stuck, the read link has pictures.)

[Via Zatz Not Funny]

Support for universal micro-USB phone chargers grows with ITU approval

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 23rd 2009 at 5:40PM

The entire wireless industry has been congealing around micro-USB as a universal charging standard for a while now, and we've taken yet another important step toward completely ridding the world of bizarre proprietary connectors (you know what we're talking about, Samsung) with ITU ratification this week. The UN-backed International Telecommunication Union isn't just making the move to make our lives a little less hellish, though -- it's also a strategic environmental move on a couple fronts, since universal chargers mean consumers will be able to hold on to a single charger over the life of several phones and modern chargers are far more power efficient than models that are even just a couple years old. The ITU move isn't binding or compulsory, but there's enough momentum behind micro-USB at this point that it's pretty much going to happen for any phone you'd ever consider buying going forward, and many of the big players have already hopped on the bandwagon. We won't lie, we won't miss the days of buying a $40 car charger that powers, like, two LG models.

[Thanks, d0mth0ma5]

Jabra STONE Bluetooth headset review

by Engadget staff posted Oct 23rd 2009 at 11:36AM

Finally, the teaser's over. The latest delivery to Engadget's UK penthouse is the Jabra STONE Bluetooth headset due out in the US on 8th November, and we took no time to extract the pebble from the transparent cylinder. In front of us are the two parts of the STONE: an earpiece of a breakthrough form factor that instantly makes you pity its rivals, and behind it is the accompanying portable charging base which serves as an external battery. The latter is equipped with a micro-USB port and an LED indicator -- simply green or red -- to show whether there's enough battery juice for one full charge. It's a pretty neat idea as this is the only feasible way to fit eight hours of talk time (or twelve days of standby time) into such tiny package: two on the earpiece and an extra six from the surprisingly light battery base -- our scale reckons it is just under one ounce. We also dig the auto-off function when you dock the earpiece and vice versa. Docking and undocking are pretty straight forward too: just snap in for the former, and poke your thumb through the bottom hole of the base to push the earpiece out. The generic click button hidden under the Jabra badge is easy to access and responds well. Above that is the invisible vertical touch strip for volume control and similarly it responded nicely to our strokes. What's left on the earpiece are the two LED indicators on the underside for Bluetooth connectivity and battery. So far so good, but what really matters is the ear-on experience and the audio quality -- listen for yourself after the break.

'Unique' Bluetooth banana has truly limited applications

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 23rd 2009 at 12:02AM

Some products require no explanation. Take this "Unique Banana Shaped Bluetooth Handset," for example -- either you get it or you don't, but no amount of marketing, advertising, or sweet-talking is going to get a skeptic to appreciate its brilliance. If you're still reading this, maybe -- just maybe -- you fall into the "I need this, particularly at just $17.70" camp, and for you, take heart in the knowledge that you can be just 2 to 5 business days away from talking on a simulated piece of fruit that's connected to your phone via Class 2 Bluetooth 2.0. When's the last time you heard "standby time" quoted for a banana, anyway?

[Thanks, Larry]

Toshiba Dynario fuel-cell: the battery revolution begins October 29th

by Thomas Ricker posted Oct 22nd 2009 at 1:55AM

We can hardly believe it but the day has finally arrived: Toshiba just launched the first Dynario fuel-cell for portable consumer electronics. That's right, the long promised and highly anticipated direct methane fuel-cell (DMFC) with dedicated fuel cartridge for on-the-go refueling will go on sale October 29th in Japan for ¥29,800 (about $328) plus another ¥3,150 (about $34) for a set of five, 50ml fuel cartridges. Dynario takes about 20 seconds to fill its 14ml fuel tank with an injection of a concentrated methanol solution at which point it's ready to charge USB-connected devices. Dynario's hybrid structure uses a lithium-ion battery to store enough electricity to charge two typical cellphones, according to Tosh. The first run consists of only 3,000 units after which Toshiba will gauge consumer reaction before extending the launch outside of Japan. Boy oh boy, a new age in portability has begun.

Gallery: Toshiba Dynario fuel-cell: the battery revolution begins October 29th

Motorola Droid already getting accessorized

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 20th 2009 at 5:58PM

If there's one thing that's sure to break a new Droid owner's heart, it's scratching the hell out of it -- or worse yet, dropping it to its untimely death. Wouldn't that be a tragedy? Of course, one quick and dirty way to avoid a lot of that heartache is to equip your phone with a beefy protective case, and from what we're seeing here, it looks like there won't be any problem whatsoever finding such cases on day one of the Droid's availability (whenever that happens to be). What we've got here is a third-party case (excuse us -- "carrying solution") that's popped up over at Best Buy Mobile, though interestingly, the Droid's model number of A855 is being featured far more prominently than the catchy name itself. Given the look of this thing, we think you'll need to have an extreme dedication to preserving your phone's rugged handsomeness to actually equip it, but hey, more power to you -- meanwhile, we'll carry on with letting our phones rustle around with coins, keys, pens, and switchblades in our pockets.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

RIM's BlackBerry watch pictured, possibly called 'inPulse?'

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 19th 2009 at 2:14PM

You might recall that RIM was rumored to be following down Sony Ericsson's path of branded Bluetooth watches to accompany its phones, and now, it looks like we might have the first real renderings of the final product before our eyes. This here wrist candy is possibly called the "inPulse" (not to be confused with Verizon's similarly-named prepaid offering), featuring an OLED display, real-time message preview, and presumably some sort of glanceable caller ID to make needlessly pulling your Tour out of its holster a thing of the past. Interestingly, it seems like the watch isn't being developed in-house -- instead, work has been farmed out to some company dedicated to the BlackBerry aftermarket with an official announcement expected "soon." As far as we know, Sony Ericsson's watches -- which arguably look nicer on account of their analog / digital hybrid design -- haven't been hot sellers, but who knows, maybe RIM's got some neat tricks up its sleeve with this one.

[Thanks, Evan]

HTC gets fancy with designer Tattoo covers

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 13th 2009 at 8:14AM

We knew the Tattoo would be just a little funkier than the rest of the devices in HTC's Android line (though you've got to admit that the pink Hero is pretty freakin' funky), and that vision's now coming to fruition under a whole line of designer covers. Under the clever-but-obvious "Tattoo My HTC" and "Tattoo You" catchphrases, the company is now offering a selection of 15 replacement covers to spice up your sidearm for €11.99 (about $18) each -- and if you're not feeling any of them, you can design your own right from the comfort of HTC's site for €14.99 (about $22). That might seem outrageous for a battery cover, but the good news is that these aren't just pretty rear ends -- the covers replace both the front and back of the Tattoo for a whole-body makeover that's sure to impress your fashion-conscious friends.

[Via Pocket-lint]

CTIA jumps on the micro-USB bandwagon

by Tim Stevens posted Oct 12th 2009 at 7:04AM

Think the CTIA is only good for swank trade shows? Think again! It's actually a trade group created to fight for your interests -- or at least those interests of your duly elected wireless providers -- and apparently top among those lists of interests is plug standardization. Yes, we're not the only ones sick of still having a sprawling mess of a gadget charging station, so CTIA is saying that micro-USB will be the power standard for all handsets and mobile devices. Likewise, the 3.5mm audio plug will be the standard for audio output on those same gadgets. It's shocking, we know, if only because we thought the entire gadget universe was already on board, with everyone and their mommas signing up for micro-USB and even HTC finally making room for a 3.5mm hole in the bottom of their handsets. These standards are set to go into effect in January of 2012, meaning we should get a good 11 months or so of dongle-free gadget harmony before the apocalypse.

BlackBerry Storm 2 accessories roll into Best Buy

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 11th 2009 at 8:57PM

Silicone skins for the Storm 2 are starting to find their way into shipments destined to Best Buy stores around the country, another solid signal that RIM's second touchscreen effort is hitting retail sooner rather than later. What we found amusing about this first batch is that the packaging seems conflicted about what to call the thing -- 9550, Storm II (as opposed to Storm2 or Storm 2, interestingly), and even the phone's codename Odin all make appearances front and center. We suppose they're just trying to make it crystal clear what phone the skin's intended for, and with leaks going back a solid year, you've got to cover all your bases.

[Thanks, Caffoni]

Continue reading BlackBerry Storm 2 accessories roll into Best Buy

iPhone accessories can download iPhone apps to your iPhone memory

by Tim Stevens posted Sep 30th 2009 at 7:17AM

iPhone accessories automatically downloading iPhone apps to your iPhone memory

Among the many minor changes included in the 3.0 release of the iPhone OS was one that would enable those myriad of iPhone accessories to work more closely with software. That is to say, to make the plugging in of one result in in a prompting to download the other. The first such piece of hardware is the latest Griffin iTrip, which, when connected, raises the dialog shown above. You can of course say "No" if you don't feel like playing along, but when it comes to accessories like the TomTom car kit we're thinking you'll probably be missing out if you don't go along with the flow.

[Via AppleInsider]

TomTom car kit for iPhone will run $120

by Laura June posted Sep 28th 2009 at 3:35PM

We've been waiting quite a while to hear pricing info for the much-anticipated TomTom car kit for the iPhone. The kit, which will be sold separately from the navigational iPhone app, will be available in October (that's almost now!!). While we still don't have full details on what the whole package will include, it's officially going to run you $119.95 (or 99.99 if you pay in Euros). Check out the teaser video after the break to tide you over until the awesome, GPS-infused release date is upon us.

[Via GPSTracklog]

Griffin iTrip now features iPhone OS 3.0 integration

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Sep 23rd 2009 at 11:57AM

Griffin, known for its accessories for the iPod and iPhone, has just announced its latest and greatest (though just how great is still in question). The latest iteration of the iTrip takes full advantage of iPhone OS 3.0, allowing you to control the FM transmitter from your iPhone / iPod touch itself. Aren't luscious touchscreen controls preferable to the iTrip's tiny buttons anyways? In addition to app integration, the transmitter features track and artist information on RDS-compatible radios, SmartScan technology for finding the best available frequency in any locale, and a micro-USB port for charging any USB-powered iPod or iPhone from a charger. iTrip is available for $49.99, and the iTrip Controller software can be downloaded for free from the App Store.