I’ve looked at the Plantronics Discovery 975 Bluetooth Headset in hands-on text/pics review (here), but thought you might like something a bit more multimedia – hence the vid:

Hands-on with the Plantronics Discovery 975 Bluetooth Headset from IntoMobile on Vimeo.

So, I’ve had some time with the Altec Lansing InMotion Classic, and wrote a summary up (here) – but take a look at the video I shot also:

Hands-on with the Altec Lansing InMotion Classic IMT620 from IntoMobile on Vimeo.

I did a text & pics review of the Altec Lansing Orbit-M (here), but why do text & pics when you can do video:

Hands-on with the Altec Lansing Orbit-M from IntoMobile on Vimeo.

Completing a trio of ‘hands-on’ reviews this week is the Plantronics Discovery 975 Bluetooth Headset. Quite a distinctive little number, with a medium-long boom on it, and some very stylised lines to it – oh, and the case doubles as a charger! Interested? Read on….!

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I recently had some news through about the Altec Lansing InMotion Classic IMT620, which I posted up. Basically it’s an iPhone/iPod speaker stand, including both an FM Radio, and the ability to take an AUX input – a handy variety of options then! Well now I’ve had one for a while, I have some thoughts to share:

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Not so very long ago, I posted up news that Altec Lansing had released their Orbit range, including the -M (which is a 3.5mm jack connected speaker) and the -USB, which is a (surprisingly enough) little speaker connected via USB. Well now I’ve spent some time with the Orbit-M, I think I can post up some thoughts on the diminutive little wonder!

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Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) didn’t have a CTIA booth this go around, so they sent their Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2 with the “Windows Phone” booth to keep things interesting. There was no way I wasn’t going to get my hands all over the X2’s improved arc-slider and 3.5-inch OLED touchscreen. The X1 launched Sony Ericsson’s high-end XPERIA brand with high-end style last year, leaving some big shoes for the X2 to fill. We just had to find out if it did.

Changed from the X1 days is the touchscreen. The XPERIA X2 boasts a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen that’s flush mounted. No more recessed resistive nonsense here. The arc-sliding keyboard is more comfortable and feels less cramped than the X1’s. And, of course, there’s the 8.1-megapixel camera tucked into the curvy shell.

The Panel UI still allows you to change your homescreen to fit your changing needs and moods. There are new Panels available too: a kind of cheesy Sim City-esque Sony Ericsson panel, new Windows Mobile 6.5 panels and more. The new Slide View feature takes center stage in the X2’s interface, serving up an inspired shortcut menu design that makes it easy to hop around oft-used phone features like missed calls, messages and  panels.

We’ll let the video and photo gallery do the rest of the talking.

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CTIA Fall 2009 isn’t the biggest show we’ve ever been to. In fact, this particular conference might be the smallest CTIA we’ve ever attended. But, that doesn’t mean there’s a lack of cool hardware to ogle on the showfloor. Take the Nokia N900 for example. It’s Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s latest Nseries smartphone, and the first of the Nseries lineup to run a non-Symbian OS. Nokia tapped its Maemo development team to craft a version of the Linux-based operating system for the new Nokia N900 smartphone, and we have to say it’s light-years better than S60. Say what you want about Symbian, just don’t say it’s “good.”

Anyway, enough ranting about Symbian. The Nokia N900 is a true multi-tasking powerhouse. The N900 is powered by the same 600Mhz ARM Cortex A8 processor that you’ll find crunching numbers inside the iPhone 3GS. Nokia uses that awesome processor to bring serious multi-tasking to the Nokia N900. Take a look at the video below and you’ll see that the N900 we were playing with was running no less than six apps at the same time – no saved-state nonsense, this was legitimate multi-tasking. One of the apps (a game) even displayed an animated thumbnail showing the game in action while running in the background.

The UI is smooth and lag-free. Flick your finger on the touchscreen and you’ll be treated to a bit of kinetic scrolling. Maemo 5 supports widgets too, which means you can fill your three homescreen panes with all sorts of little info-windows that pull social-network information in real-time. And, as an added bonus, Maemo 5 runs a Mozilla-based web browser that boasts full Flash 9.2 support. This isn’t the crappy Flash Lite that some folks have been saying is a good alternative to real Flash support (even though it really isn’t). This is real Flash, running real fast and real smoothly.

As for the hardware, here’s a quick rundown. The Nokia N900 features a 3.5-inch WVGA capacitive resistive touchscreen, 5-megapixel Carl Zeiss camera (with dual-LED flash), 32GB onboard storage, 3G data, GPS, WiFi, FM radio and that speedy 600Mhz Cortex A8 processor. In a nutshell, it’s everything you’d expect from Nokia’s latest Nseries flagship.

You can pre-order the Nokia N900 from NokiaUSA.com for $649. Have at it!

Enjoy the video.

Hands-on the Nokia N900 from IntoMobile.

[Update]
Touchscreen is resistive, not capacitive

That’s it. Game over. After spending some quality one-on-one time with the HTC HD2 (Leo) today, we’re convinced that the HTC HD2 is the “baddest Windows Phone” of the year. In fact, the HD2 might be strong enough to carry that title through much of next year. The powerful-yet-slim HD2 packs a 1Ghz Snapdragon chipset into a shell no thicker than your standard yellow No. 2 pencil, basically killing any hint of the lag we’re used to seeing with Windows Mobile.

What makes this new Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone so great? Well, aside from its power-packed chipset and sexy design aesthetic, the HD2 is the only Windows Phone (so far) to sport a capacitance-based touchscreen (like on the iPhone and Android smartphones) that throws out pixels at WVGA resolutions across a whopping 4.3-inches of real estate. Then, add in the fact that the HD2 features a 5-megapixel camera (with dual-LED flash), integrated GPS, WiFi, microSD slot, FM radio, digital compass and a 3.5mm headphone jack, and it’s easy to see how the HD2 dominates the competition.

HTC also baked in some of their Sense design philosophy into the HD2’s TouchFLO 3D UI, focusing on personalization/customization, intuitive finger-based interface and media consumption. That all translates into a user experience that we’d frankly never expected from a Windows Phone.

We’re expecting to see the HTC HD2 make its US debut in Q1 of 2010. As for the US price, we’re not sure. But, we’re still willing to offer a kidney in trade.

[Update]
Photos color corrected and updated. Apologies for making your eyes freak out.

Rock Band is on its way to the iPhone! Forget everything you thought you knew about beat-matching music games on the iPhone, EA Mobile’s Rock Band is by far the best in its class. We had a chance to sit down with EA Mobile at CTIA WITE 2009 to get a sneak-peek at Rock Band for iPhone, and it’s looking good. The game gives you the option of playing on your own, taking a world tour (as you unlock points for new songs) or jam with up to four of your iPhone friends in person or over the internet. Linking up for 4-way multi-player mode is done over Bluetooth, so you don’t even have to worry about finding a hotspot to get your jam on!

The iPhone port of Rock Band gives the gamer the same look and feel as the console version – graphics, gameplay and sound effects are all very familiar. Just like the console version, Rock Band for iPhone offers four different instruments to play – bass, guitar, drums and even vocals. The game comes loaded with 20 songs, all of them master versions from the real-life band (no cover songs). And, with in-app purchases now supported on the iPhone OS 3.0, Rock Band for iPhone will allow you buy new song packs directly from EA Mobile. How sweet is that?

[Update]
There’s no hard launch date set, but the game is going in for AppStore approval within a week. After that, it’s up to Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) to pull the trigger.

Keep reading for our sneak-peek video of the upcoming Rock Band iPhone game!

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