Apple iphone Voted as Coolest Gadget of the Year

T-Mobile’s latest Windows Mobile smartphone bucks the utilitarian integument of other devices and dons some sharper duds. It’s about the size of a BlackBerry Pearl, and should tempt enterprise and consumer users alike.

If ever there were a Windows Mobile smartphone to get some cross-over appeal, the HTC Shadow for T-Mobile is it. T-Mobile apparently gets that design is an increasingly important distinction when it comes to smartphones. If you were to line up every smartphone on the market, you’d see very little real differentiation, especially between ones with qwerty keyboards. The Shadow is different.

It has style in spades. A large, glossy screen. Nice metallic finishes, and a small form factor that will slip into a pocket as easily as a briefcase. Not only does it look good, it works well, too.

T-Mobile, HTC, and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) developed a user interface overlay that sits on top of Windows Mobile 6. This overlay is what most people will use to access content and applications on the phone. It is a very good UI, and lets you almost forget that the Shadow is a WM6 smartphone. It uses a combination of a spin dial and sliding icons to interact with the phone in a much more enjoyable and intuitive way than I’ve seen on other WM6 devices.

There are some foibles, though. It comes with Wi-Fi, but, shockingly, no UMA client to take advantage of T-Mobile’s Hotspot@Home service. The UMA client is a no brainer, it should have been on there. And there are no headset jacks. If you don’t have stereo Bluetooth headphones, or a funky miniUSB headset adapter, you won’t be able to listen to your Windows Media Player tunes while on the go. And of course it remains stuck on T-Mobile’s EDGE network. (T-Mo, you really need to get that 3G network up and running.)

These aside, the Shadow is a solid little smartphone that can easily double as a daily workhorse and fashionable Saturday night phone at the same time.

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Apple iphone Voted as Coolest Gadget of the Year

Stuff Magazine has announced its 10 coolest gadgets in the world for year 2007. And Apple’s two gadgets have grabbed the place in the list of ten.

Stuff Magazine readers have voted for the iPhone as the coolest gadget (first position) even before it makes its way in the UK. This touchscreen device has 8GB memory especially designed for music lovers.

iPod Nano is the other Apple device that appeared in the list of Coolest Gadgets. Nano is on the tenth position.

Leica M8, 10 megapixel digital camera is at the second position while the Tonium Pacemaker, the MP3 DJing gadget got the third highest votes.

Sony Ericsson’s Bluetooth wrist watch MBW-150 vibrates to alert users to incoming calls, allowing them to receive or decline calls. Also Sony Ericsson’s W880i mobile phone was included in the coolest gadgets list at sixth spot.

Some other devices that could make their presence in the list are DIY Kyoto Wattson and Shanling MC-30 MP3/CD amp.

Apple iphone Voted as Coolest Gadget of the Year

Stuff Magazine has announced its 10 coolest gadgets in the world for year 2007. And Apple’s two gadgets have grabbed the place in the list of ten.

Stuff Magazine readers have voted for the iPhone as the coolest gadget (first position) even before it makes its way in the UK. This touchscreen device has 8GB memory especially designed for music lovers.

iPod Nano is the other Apple device that appeared in the list of Coolest Gadgets. Nano is on the tenth position.

Leica M8, 10 megapixel digital camera is at the second position while the Tonium Pacemaker, the MP3 DJing gadget got the third highest votes.

Sony Ericsson’s Bluetooth wrist watch MBW-150 vibrates to alert users to incoming calls, allowing them to receive or decline calls. Also Sony Ericsson’s W880i mobile phone was included in the coolest gadgets list at sixth spot.

Some other devices that could make their presence in the list are DIY Kyoto Wattson and Shanling MC-30 MP3/CD amp.

AT&T offers Napster music service

US mobile phone giant AT&T has said it will give its customers direct access to digital music provider Napster’s catalogue of five million songs.
As part of the deal, AT&T will offer its subscribers Napster tracks for $1.99 each (97 pence) or $7.49 for five songs a month from mid-November.

The firm already offers downloads from independent labels through eMusic.com.

AT&T has not said which phones will work with the service, but they will not include Apple’s iPhone.

AT&T has North America’s largest wireless network and has an exclusive deal for the iPhone in the US.

However, it cannot offer Napster to users of the iPhone, which can only access songs from Apple’s iTunes music store.

AT&T also said it aimed to offer music downloads exclusively to mobile phones through direct deals with artists.

Mobile phone operators have been clamouring to offer services, such as music and video downloads, to boost their revenue streams.

Nokia N81 and N81 8GB shipment begins

World’s largest mobile phone maker Motorola has confirmed that they are now shipping their latest mobile phone products Nokia N81 and N81 8GB.

The Nokia N81 would be sold in the retail market for a price of around 360 Euros.

The Nokia N81 8GB would sell for a retail price of 430 Euros.

The company added that they are working on plans to launch their N-Gage games service later this year.

These two mobile phones come loaded with dedicated music and game keys.

Nokia added that these phone also feature for the first time a 3D Multimedia Menu. Jonas Geust, vice president, Multimedia, Nokia added in his statement: “Accessing your portable music and games collection is not enough anymore. Today people want to be more in control of how and where they consume their digital entertainment. They want to discover new favorites and share them without being confined to one location – and it’s devices like the Nokia N81 that facilitate this.”