We all know that the 3G Apple iPhone is almost certainly coming in June thanks to many subtle hints, like AT&T telling its employees not to take a vacation and now O2 add confirmation with the boss of the company (Telefonica Europe), Matthew Key, reported O2’s quarterly results and said he will be making an announcement about the Apple iPhone in the “Coming Weeks”. Phones Review said, after being asked a more direct question about the launch date of the 3G iPhone, he replied “That’s more of a question for Apple … but over the coming weeks we will do a joint announcement with Apple as Telefónica Group”.

Now what do you make of that? It’s obvious the 3G iPhone is about to launch very soon, but the exact date is just speculation. If you like a good bet, then my money is on a 9th of June launch during the Worldwide Developers’ Conference in San Francisco. That’s not long away, so if I am wrong then that will be proven very soon. As a first generation iPhone owner, I am really interested in the details of the next generation iPhone and what makes it even more interesting for myself and others, is the fact that Apple have not given any details about the next iPhone yet.

With the 8GB version of the current Apple iPhone being sold out, it would be interesting to know how many Apple iPhones have been sold, but Matthew Key refused to give this information when asked. Although we have heard that in the first 3 months of this year, O2 added 206,000 new contract customers and I am sure many of these will be iPhone customers. Key also mentioned in the financial results for the first quarter, that O2 UK grew around 13%. One thing is for sure, they are ready for the 3G iPhone and the customers are ready as well.

Written by Daniel for Product Reviews
In Sections: Cell & Mobile Phones
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Guitar RockStar for £14.99, drunken air guitar while you’re Dancing in the Dark might make you feel Hotter than Hell. But at last, the Guitar Rock Star can give you More Than a Feeling. SORRY… but we just can’t help it. One look at the latest piece of musical kit from iwantoneofthose.com and we’re leaping around faster than Jumpin Jack Flash. This little beauty is perfect for those who were born to rock - but whose musical talents are less Led Zeppelin and more Les Dawson.

The Guitar Rock Star is a handy gadget which is made up just of the guitar machine-head, and the very top of the fretboard. Switch it on, and invisible infra-red beams appear in place of the remaining fretboard and strings – just strum away, and you’ll sound like the missing member of Pink Floyd. OK, well, maybe Status Quo. As well as covering all the basic chords from A to G, there are even buttons for sharps, flats and sevenths to give you all the notes you need. Hey, it’s only rock and roll. But we like it.

Rolerball for £999, this gigantic Rolerball is simply awesome, potentially dangerous but nevertheless awesome. Once inflated this behemoth stands about 3 metres high and the idea is to put it at the top of a slope, strap yourself in and roll down the hill trying not to lose your lunch. Inside the centre shell are two harnesses, you could have 2 people feeling the adrenaline rush together. There is a version of this mad sport that requires you to remove the harnesses, add a bucket or two of water, tie in the seal and launch yourself off…
The ball is made from a very tough material, and comes with a puncture repair kit, but you want to be sure you’re using it in a clear area, only on provate land and with supervision. It comes with a powerful pump that will inflate it in about 15 minutes. If you’re into doing mad stuff then this is surely the recipe for it. See movie of it in action on YouTube

You can buy both these products on iwantoneofthose.com

Written by Daniel for Product Reviews
In Sections: Gadgets & Technology
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The P527 GPS smartphone by Asus runs on a TI OMAPTM 850 200MHz CPU, and has an operating system of Windows Mobile 6 Professional. The Asus P527 mobile phone has EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. While the display of this smartphone is a 2.6 inch TFT 240 x 320 resolution screen while the overall dimensions are 113 x 58 x 15.4mm and weights just 129 grams.

The Asus P527 smartphone is a little thicker than say the Apple iPhone but roughly the same size dimension wise. The battery is a 1300mAh lithium-ion which should be good for 4/5 hours of talk-time along with 150/200 hours standby time. The Asus P527’s wireless connectivity is 802.11b/g and also Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR. The handset is capable of surfing the internet, view HTTP and WAP 1.2.1/2 sites while the memory is 128MB of flash and 64MB of SDRAM and also incorporates the trusty old microSD/SDHC card slot.

The Asus P527’s GPS receiver is a SiRF Star III with an internal antenna and GPS functionality works really well. The camera is 2 megapixels and supports Audio formats MP3, WMA, and ACC with supported video of MPEG-4/H.263. The Asus P527 incorporates full PDA functions such as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel while an FM receiver is built in and the mobile phone even comes with maps of North America although they are stored on the included microSD card and seem to be somewhat out of date.

The Asus P527 software included is quite interesting as it has the capabilities to capture images whit the handset camera and append them to a GPS route which can then be uploaded direct to Google Earth, and also allows reporting of your GPS position to your contacts in your pre-defined lists. The Asus P527’s FM tunes works reasonably well and is a nice addition. Vioce call quality is good, maybe not on par with the Apple iPhone but still quite decent.

Unfortunately the Asus P527’s speaker phone seems a little on the low volume side, although connection to the mobile phone to a Bluetooth headset is extremely easy, but the phones processor is somewhat of a letdown as it’s clearly too slow for all the Asus P527 wants to accomplish.

This mobile smartphone has an on-screen keyboard and comes with a workable stylus although cheap looking and constructed of plastic giving it a feel of like the last couple of months before it needs replacing. Its camera is best put to use for daylight photos as it lacks a flash. Email configuration is a doddle, and for some accounts such as Gmail the P527 will even find the server informationit requires from the web. Although surfing the web on the AT&T EDGE network is slower than an Apple iPhone on the same network.

Finalising, the Asus P527 on the whole just seems a tad pokey, an average mobile phone that does what it does well. But the real deal killer with the Asus P527 is the heavy price at over $500.00, and to be honest at that price you can get a much better phone.

Source – i4u

A new mobile phone has recently surfaced on the internet, the soon to be released E55 mobile phone by BenQ, on the internet though only in a low-res image and a few skimpy details. So, BenQ’s E55 mobile phone is of a clamshell design, a pretty stylish design probably styled to attract those users who love the feel of a stylish flip phone.

Although not much is known about the E55 among the known features of this new BenQ mobile handset there is tri-band GSM connectivity EDGE and GPS, 2100MHz WCDMA/ 3Gfor faster data transfer speeds, its hands-free, and has Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, and that really is about all the details known.

But we can hazard a guess can’t we? As much detail is missing about this mobile phones internal display for instance, it does seem somewhat larger for a clamshell and probably measures somewhere in the region of 2.4 or even maybe 2.6 inches supporting possibly a QVGA 240 x 320 resolutions. We can also seen in the image a smallish external screen, nothing unusual there as most screens of this type are small. We also note a photo camera but it is somewhat difficult to judge its performance from an image so it remains a mystery for now. And of course as with most of the details on the BenQ E55 clamshell mobile phone, the price is also a mystery along with its availability.

BenQ is based in Taiwan and generally concentrates its activity on manufacturing LCD displays, consumer electronics and notebooks, and only having the mobile phone division as a secondary department. Although way back in 2006 BenQ purchased the mobile handset division of giant German conglomerate, Siemens. Though manufacturing mobile phones may not be BenQ’s major concern it has still managed to bring up to now several interesting mobile phones into play such as the highly fashionable S7 and T60 models and the M7 roughed candy-bar, and also the wonderfully weird shaped SL98 slider mobile. So maybe the E55 will be worthy of joining their ranks, but until more info comes out and something official we’ll just have to wait and see.

Source – softpedia

Okay, so onto the Samsung F400, it is a dual slider music mobile phone which incorporates Bang & Olufsen ICEpower technology, (DNSeTM) Digital Natural Sound engine 2.0, 3 megapixel camera with AF LED Flash, all encased in a 16.9mm thick casing, and yes it’s hardly a slim RAZR type but still slim and neat when it comes to mobile music phones.

Other great features that can be found with the Samsung F400 mobile music phone are, dual stereo speakers, 3.5mm headphone jack, 2.2 inch 262K TYT display screen, Bluetooth 2.0, FM radio with RDS, USB 2.0, HSDPA network support, and the faithful old 1GB microSD card in-box with support for up to 8GB memory cards. Also notable about the Samsung F400 are a few features that have been well sort of copied from a couple of rivals.

The dual sliding design of the Samsung F400 was first seen on the Nokia N95, and Samsung applies the same technique with its F400. When the front slides up it becomes a metallic keypad equipped mobile handset; slide it back down and the music functions come into play and add to the music hot-key which the silver wheel navigator is in the middle of the mobile phone.

Also the Samsung F400 incorporates Shazam, the music recognition application which is similar to that of the Sony Ericsson’s TrackID which allows a user to find out more about song clips recorded from the FM radio. By May this year France with be the first to gain the Samsung F400, but by later this year the Samsung F400 should be rolling out across the world markets. As yet though there is no word on price, but maybe if it is inexpensive it may just do quite well.

Source – unwiredview

I received a License Key to try KidsSave, a savings and money management software program designed for kids ages 6 and up. KidsSave shows kids how to save money towards a goal, how to keep track of their allowance, even how to earn monetary rewards like extra money or “interest”. Parents act as the Banker in setting up the initial account and monitoring transactions.

There are two features of the program that I particularly like, the first is the “What If?” feature. Kids can set a savings goal and then see at their current deposit rate, how long it will take them to reach that goal. Or, they can see how much they will have in 3 months, 6 months, a year, etc. It’s a great way to teach how to make adjustments to savings to reach a financial goal.

I also like the Money Counter, which teaches kids how to add and subtract coins and bills to their account. It’s available in U.S., Canadian, and Australian currency. Now, as the Banker/Parent, your responsibility will be to actually keep your kids’ money in an account somewhere. If they decide to make a withdrawal, you’ll need to be able to come up with their cash!

I give my boys their age in dollars for allowance every two weeks, and I do not tell them what to do with it. If Nathan wants to blow the whole nine dollars on a new lego set, that’s up to him, but then if a week later he sees something else, he has to wait until his next payday. KidsSave is a great visual tool to explain the benefits of not spending the entire allowance all at once.

You can download a free trial of KidsSave on the Kidnexions website, or purchase it for $29.95. You might find yourself creating an account and setting up your own savings goals like I did!

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Today we are hearing that there is a Ford Recall for F-150 and Lincoln Mark LT pickup trucks, the Ford Motor Company has recalled these trucks because of a faulty power brake assist hose that has caused no injuries but did cause 11 minor accidents. The company reported they would recall more than 650,000 vehicles that are equipped with the 5.4-liter three-valve engine. This recall includes 2005 and 2006 F-150 and Mark LT trucks, it was also confirmed by to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

The problem with the faulty power brake assist hose is that it can swell over time and this can cause the hose to become detached from the intake manifold, if this happens then the breaking creates increased pressure on the brake pedal. 50,000 of the recalled vehicles are from Canada, 1,500 are in other countries and the rest of in the United States. Although we are breaking this news now, it seems Ford does not have the parts to make the repair needed and they have said they will start notifying F-150 and Mark LT owners of the recall in early July. This was made aware in letters to Ford Lincoln and Mercury dealers, if you do own one of the vehicles or want more information then you can contact Ford at 1-800-392-3673. Obviously this repair will not cost the customers anything when Ford starts the recall in a couple of months.

What do you make on this recall and would you wish to be contacted sooner?

Source: Read

Written by Daniel for Product Reviews
In Sections: Autos, News, Recalls
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The last generation of games consoles was very different to what we have today and that’s not only in hardware, the latest games systems are apparently going to have a longer shelf life. The Microsoft Xbox 360 is being reported to have a 7 Year Shelf Life that will take it up to 2012. This 7 year life span was quoted from Shane Kim, the boss of Microsoft Game Studios and he said “we’re pretty confident the 360 will have a long tail” and went on to say “people will start saying that Microsoft missed a trick with not using Blu-ray. I just don’t believe that”.

The fact is Microsoft did make the wrong decision with HD-DVD, as it lost to Blu-ray but as Microsoft did not include this drive as a built-in option, can you really class it as part of the Xbox 360 plan? Many gamers have already said that the 360 has always been a gaming device first and foremost. Was HD DVD really part of Microsoft’s plan or are they going the IPTV and high definition video on demand route, as this could be a better choice than normal disc media with broadband speeds get better every year.

Microsoft have said they are not seeing any technical limitations with the Xbox 360, and I would have to agree it can easily last the full seven years, but surely the Sony Playstation 3 with its Blu-ray drive and Cell processor, will have a much better shelf life than the 360. What’s your view?

Written by Daniel for Product Reviews
In Sections: Gaming, Sony Playstation 3, Xbox 360
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Now-a-days most people love their mobile phone because of the music, and I’m sure the mobile phones the music lover prefers are the ones that allow the longest playing time possible without the need for recharge. So if this is that type of music phone you are searching for then maybe just maybe LG’s latest mobile phone is the one for you and worth taking a close look at.

LG’s latest is the LG KM501 mobile phone, and a music phone that is billed as being able to last for 29 hours of music playback; now wouldn’t the music orientate just love that?
But you know what they say about always be sceptical about the claims of manufacturers and their specifications, always be a little sceptic and you won’t be disappointed too much.

Anyway the LG KM501 also offers the user an abundance of other multimedia features such as an advanced music player, 3.5mm headphone jack, and dedicated music keys, just the usual run-of-the-mill music phone features but still all good.

The LG KM501’s music player also features an equaliser mode along with a so-called “background mode” this background mode apparently allows the advanced music player to run in the background while the user uses other applications, so I guess that means music while you text and stuff.

The LG KM501 is tri-band GSM and measures 101.5 x 48 x 15mm thick and also incorporates features such as a 2 megapixel camera with built-in flash and digital zoom, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, a 2 inch 240 x 320 pixel 260K colours display, pre-installed games, IM and other connectivity options, built-in Web browser, 42MB of internal memory and microSD slot to take up to 4GB cards.

Unfortunately the LG KM501 mobile music phone is only available in Korea at present, however with the long play time and features like this it should be only a matter of time before the world markets gain the LG KM501 music phone.

Source – unwiredview

Apple continues to roll out their iconic mobile phone the iPhone internationally with the news that the Apple iPhone is headed for Switzerland carried by Swisscom. Although an official statement from the telecom company was brief and straight to the point, it simply confirmed a deal has been agreed with Apple; local news sources are apparently filling in any gaps by simply claiming Swisscom will get the unconfirmed 3G Apple iPhone model.

Le Matin newspaper claims the Apple iPhone version that is going to be on sale in Switzerland will sport mobile television, video conferencing and GPS navigation, apparently using an even beefier processor, and will go on sale sometime in June. Ever since the announcement, Swisscom’s website has apparently leaked pricing for the 3G 16GB Apple iPhone model will apparently be available in silver while the 32GB Apple 3G iPhone will be available in black, silver, and white.

Well the description sure does sound like what everyone has been expecting with the Apple 3G iPhone, so maybe we will see it pop up at the Worldwide developers Conference. As for those Swisscom prices they are advertising 3G Apple iPhones including the 16GB model for 659 Swiss Francs and the 32GB model for 772 Swiss francs.

Apparently Swisscom won’t have a fixed rate tariff but is opting for a charge of 40 Swiss Francs per month with users paying 45 centimes per hour of use when calling other Swisscom mobile phones or fixed lines. SMS messaging will cost 20 centimes per message and data transfer 50 centimes. Reports have it the Apple 3G iPhone will be available through all 118 Swisscom stores and Apple in-development own brand retail stores in Geneva and Zurich.

Source – pocket-lint and 9to5mac