Two minutes of blurtastic video have bubbled up which give a basic tour of Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard running on a Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Q9h. One would easily expect that the newer Windows Mobile handsets are built with 6.5 in mind, but it’s great to see even older hardware can handle the new OS, too. There’s not much that especially catches the eye - in fact, the whole thing looks pretty samey, but we all know 6.5 is more of a facelift than anything else. The SDK for the “new” Windows Mobile has already been released, so you can expect the software soon - maybe late summer/early fall if the hardware rumours pan out.
Brad Pitt is at it again, appearing in yet another commercial for Japanese carrier SoftBank. In this commercial, Pitt plays a character doing everything he can to please sumo champ Musashimaru. I love it when his sandal breaks and Pitt comes to the rescue. Oh yeah, and I suppose there’s a cell phone in the ad as well. Hopefully the slim and easy to use phone doesn’t go right over the heads of the audience here. Hit play and enjoy.
Note: If someone could translate the text for me at the end of the ad… That’d be great.
If you had any reservations about 3D gaming on the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre, the above video might change your mind. ZodTTD, the genius that developed many emulators for the iPhone has rooted his Pre, and loaded up his PlayStation emulator onto the device. Many bats are still in need of being flushed out of the cave, but as you can see in the video, the basics are there. Can’t wait for more news from ZodTTD on a final version of the emulator for the Pre.
A few notes on development from ZodTTD:
There is no sound output (but it’s emulated), as Pulse Audio is required for the Palm Pre, and I have yet to support it. It will come soon.
I have not figured out hardware rotation or scaling, or whether it is possible. Until then I am using the raw framebuffer device and blitting 320×240 software scaled.
I figured out how to read the keypad device on the Palm Pre, though there are times it fails to give a keyup event, making keys “stick”. This is annoying and I’m looking for a workaround.
As things progress I will have fullscreen landscape working as well.
I’m particularly excited about this for one reason alone: The Pre has physical buttons! Don’t get me wrong, I love playing games on my iPhone… But heck, sometimes a guy just needs a few buttons, y’know?
Here she is, a video look at the promo kit Bell stores have received for the BlackBerry Tour 9630. All sorts of Tour goodness is contained within, including the much requested beach ball (really, I have no idea why a beach ball is in there). But seriously, all sorts of promo materials are found inside. I’d LOVE to get my hands on the dummy phone, for some reason I get a kick out of ‘em.
The dedicated do-it-yourselfers out there will probably have already slapped together an iPhone tripod using some spare toothpicks and a fork, or two. The rest of us haven’t even considered making a DIY iPhone tripod. For those of you in that second category, iPhone-modder Scott Patrick has posted a DIY video that explains how to make an iPhone tripod using a Contour Case and a few hardware knick-knacks.
Contour Case used for this DIY is the most expensive component you’ll need. It’s $30 and you can grab one here.
Lately there’s been a lot of talk about whether or not the Sense UI unveiled for the HTC Hero will be available on other handsets, either Android and Windows Mobile. Well, some clever chaps have managed to cram Rosie onto the HTC G1/Dream and demoed it on video for the world to gawk at. Everything seems to run pretty smoothly through the eight minutes of navigation, but feel free to watch the whole thing for a nice tour of what will likely end up on the Hero. There are full instructions on how to get the HTC Hero’s user interface on your own G1 in broken, Google (NSDQ: GOOG)-translated English, but just keep in mind the ROM is still half-baked and prone to a few bugs. In the long run, Sense won’t officially make it onto Android phones “with Google” due to licensing issues - the UI is HTC’s baby, not Google’s, after all.
We have no idea if the video you’re about to see is legit or not, but it sure does get your attention. If real, your iPhone 3GS might just be water-resistant enough to survive a fairly short dip in a pool. We don’t suggest finding out for yourself, but please do report back if you decide to take the plunge.
The video speaks for itself.
Keep it mind that waterproof cases aren’t hard to come by.
The iPhone 3GS is a rockin’ smartphone in so many ways. Faster performance, upgraded hardware, a full-featured (finally) iPhone OS 3.0 - we almost couldn’t ask for more. That’s why it’s so sad that the iPhone 3GS’s build quality has me singing the “shake, rattle and roll” blues. Some sort of hardware defect has reared its ugly head on many iPhone 3GS’s, leaving them shaking and rattling, literally.
I first noticed the problem during one of my obsessive hardware tests on the iPhone 3GS. When I say “hardware test,” I literally mean I was testing the iPhone 3GS’s hardware build-quality. The iPhone 3GS proved just as solid as the iPhone 3G - no matter how much I twisted, bent or pressed down on the case, the iPhone 3GS’s precision-machined seams stood fast. Then I started tapping away at the iPhone 3GS casing.
A tiny little rattle piqued my ears when I tapped the screen. WTF? I investigated some more by tapping the backside. Another slight rattle, a bit louder this time. I tapped the upper backside (next to the camera lens). Score. I found the source. There’s a rattle coming from just underneath the power button/camera lens area!
You know how Opera and other browsers have their remote rendering setup to offload the heavy lifting from the handset? Well, what if that technique was used for something a little less mundane, like gaming? Then you’d get burgeoning startup OTOY, who have managed to make Crysis playable on on a Samsung Omnia with a connected XBox 360 controller. OTOY still works through the browser, and as such will likely work on any mobile - iPhone, Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre, so long as it has a Wi-Fi connection (or 3G, in a pinch). I’m curious what kind of pricing model these guys will go with, but it seems likely that they’ll do something along the lines of Gametap’s all-you-can-eat subscription model. It seems unlikely that their servers will be able to handle all the processing for the latest games, but a decent selection of PS2, original XBox and Wii games would be enough to get me to sign up. Would a set-up like this finally equalize the playing field between mobile gaming (phones) and portable gaming (PSP, Nintendo DS)?
First we had the announcement that the T-Mobile myTouch 3G will be available for pre-orders July 8th. Yesterday, we had spy shots of the upcoming Android-powered device. Today, of course, we have the obligatory unboxing video of the T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) myTouch 3G! You will already recognize the box art from a previous leak, but you may not have seen the ‘unzippable’ travel case that the myTouch 3G appears to come in. I like the looks of that!
Check out the video above and let me know what you think in the comments. Are you primed for the myTouch 3G, or could you care less?
The iPhone 3GS is a rockin’ smartphone in so many ways. Faster performance, upgraded hardware, a full-featured (finally) iPhone OS 3.0 - we almost couldn’t ask for more. That’s why it’s so sad that the iPhone 3GS’s build quality has me singing the “shake, rattle and roll” blues. Some sort of hardware defect has reared its ugly head on many iPhone 3GS’s, leaving them shaking and rattling, literally.