What, more devices that are racking up multiple Mobile phone functions? Bring it on please….!

The Mintpad is one of those crossover devices that aims to do a lot of things – it’s been in the market a little while, but I’m never one to discount a device out of hand for that reason – we all miss gems now and again. The device is running Win CE 5 Pro, which again might not seem like a great reason to check it out, but let’s persist…

First of all, it does look very cool – certainly there’s no hint of Win CE poking through, as has been the case with less successful UI overlays delivered by other device manufacturers. Secondly, it’s quite diminutive, packing a lot in to a very small frame – and third, it claims to have very good audio indeed!

Here’s the specs:

I guess what  a lot of you might be thinking is yeah, but I can get most of this in an iPod Touch – yes, that’s probably true, and the Touch is smaller too – but not everyone wants one of those, so it’s nice to be able to see the alternatives from time to time – of which this is one.

If you want one, hope on over to Advanced MP3 Players, who are selling both 4GB and 20GB variants of the device.

[Via: Advanced MP3 Players]

Check it out! We love all portable (mobile) devices at IntoMobile, and some are very like mobile phones, replicating one or more of their functions. Which is why I was pleased to hear the PSP™go is coming to UK shores soon!

This device could be bad-boy, it’ll just depend on whether you can really enjoy those games without two analogue controllers – something that I think the PSPs have always struggled with…

Well if Sony’s UK PR wants to send one of these devices to IntoMobile Towers, you know how to contact us

Yep, it’s that time of the week – for our UK readers consideration, eXpansys have rolled a series of new deals for Friday 4th September. Here are the links:

Nokia 5800

Asus P320

Intel X18

trueCall Call Blocker

Garmin Mobile GPS Software

GlobalSat Waterproof USB GPS Receive

Personally this week I am liking the Garmin Mobile GPS software – recently I’ve gone a bundle on Mobile GPS/Sat Nav Apps, so it’s good to see there are a variety of solutions in the market – and this case, at very keen prices!

These deals are available on Friday the 4th of September 2009 between 11am and 5pm by following the links above only. Normal pricing will apply outside of these hours. Voucher codes do not apply with these deals. Limited to 2 units per customer, available while stocks last.

[Via: eXpansys]

OK so we all like mobile devices, and part of that is being interested in new accessories that come to market. Sometimes they create their own genres, and sometimes they don’t. Let’s take the good old Bluetooth headset – very poor in it’s original incarnations, but these days they are pretty good.

Well Jawbone has come to market with the Jawbone Prime (being e-tailed by MobileFun), and it’s supposedly got some pretty darn good tech on-board – which does carry a bit of a premium!

By my reckoning it could be twice as expensive as a standard headset, but read below and see what you think:

Noise Assasin 2.0.

Jawbone has been able to eliminate real world noise better than any other headset because it is the only headset that can accurately separate speech from ambient noise.

Jawbone PRIME has even better background noise elimination than the previous generations. NoiseAssasin™ 2.0 delivers an order of magnitude improvement in the noisiest environments (6 to 9dB) extracting even more noise while keeping the user’s voice natural.

AVAD.

Acoustic Voice Activity Detector (AVAD) provides a fail-safe mechanism when the Voice Activity Sensor (VAS) doesn’t touch your face. When the VAS is not touching the face, Jawbone PRIME performs as good as or better than any other noise cancelling headset. When the VAS touches the face, you get the turbo-boost to the NoiseAssassin performance.

Works in the wind.

After solving NoiseAssassination in the most severe noise environments, Aliph focused its engineers on the task of eliminating the impact wind has on speech. With their strong background in Digital Signal Processing (DSP) techniques, the Aliph team developed a unique all digital Sensor Signal Fusion system to reduce wind noise.`

For me though, the killer feature of the headset is the fact that it’s multipoint, which means that if you have 2 phones then you can connect it up to the headset and whichever phone rings it will answer. This is a brilliant feature if you have a personal phone and business phone.

So what do we think? Is £89.95 reasonable?

If you want to check out the Jawbone Prime in more detail, you can go to the MobileFun site here.

[Via: MobileFun]

No sooner than I’ve checked out the pre-order for the HTC Touch 2 on eXpansys, and they are telling me about an accessory from Parrot. No great shakes you might think, but trust me, any accessory that weighs in at £300 without much change, peaks my attention immediately!

Parrot have launched today a brand new Bluetooth Car Stereo and Hands-free Kit, the Parrot RKi8400. It’s ready to ship today: £299.99. The high-spec Parrot RKi8400 Bluetooth Car Stereo and Hands-free Kit is a fantastic new type of car stereo. You can make hands-free calls easily using voice recognition, charge and store your iPod/iPhone and enjoy incredible sound quality through your existing car speakers.

Exceptional sound quality in your car

Totally integrated into the vehicle’s audio system, conversations and music are transmitted via the speakers for maximum listening quality.

Hands-free phone book access and conversations

The very first time you connect the Parrot RKi8400 to your mobile-phone, it automatically copies the contacts in your mobile’s phonebook. To make a call, use the voice-recognition function (by pressing the green button) and say the name of the person you want to call.

Elegant design and wide colour screen

The RKi8400 has a removable front panel, combining matt black with chrome features. The main functions are all accessible via an elegant rotary button, making browsing through the menus more intuitive.

Instant access to all your digital music

The Parrot RKi8400 also provides instant access to your music. Thanks to its special cables, it can support any musical source you want: iPod, iPhone, USB flash drive, and even SD cards, Bluetooth stereo (A2DP) peripherals or any other analogue player.

A storage compartment for your devices

Located behind the RKi8400’s removable front panel, ideal for hiding your phone, MP3 player or USB flash drive. A special cover provides your devices with excellent protection, whatever the circumstances.

Want one? I have to say, I kinda do! I heard Parrot’s wireless speakers some time back, and they DO sound good – the thought of a full-integrated head unit for the car is one that fills me with some excitement. If only my current car supported the swapping out of a head unit – doh doh doh!

Check out more on the Parrot RKi8400 here.

[Via: eXpansys]

OK then, just putting it out there …. What with all the news on both the LG and Samsung Watchphones (you should be able to get the Orange one this week for about £500), I was just wondering, does anyone actually want one?

The device is a puzzler for me, because although I can see the somewhat sentimental idea of emulating TV Series such as Knight Rider (Michael could call KITT on his watch), in actuality I don’t think the device will be hugely practical.

For instance, are LG and Samsung hoping that people will defect from their normal mobile device? No chance. So is it a second device (with less functionality than the primary device)? Erm, no.

In which case is then just a gimmick for rich geeks to flash to people? Maybe. But that’s hardly an addressable market segment is it! I can also understand the idea of a PoC (proof of concept) for future crossover devices, but other than that, I think the watchphone is somewhat of an oddity.

Personally, I gave up wearing up a watch when I started using a mobile device, because of the on-board clock – now that many mobile devices use network time sync to keep their time accurate, they are in fact better than many watches that are out there – so for me the whole concept is a retrograde step.

But hey ho, I’m sure it will do some sort of ‘niche volumes’ in the outlets where it is carried. But if I wanted a relatively uncommon device that had a nice hardware ID, I’d be looking to spend the same money on eBay (or similar), looking for one of the Nokia 8xxx series devices.

You can read about the LG device here, and the Samsung device here.

Image via: DSL Developments

Having written a piece that mentioned getting car mounts fitted today (here), I thought I’d just reflect back to the time when we had one fitted to our other car, and the kerfuffle we had in getting the right bits.

Specifically, I wanted an active mount for the iPhone that would allow it to be charged when the car was running – simple you might think, but the reality was that the iPhone has specific connector nuances compared to it’s iPod family. Add that to the fact that most mounts aren’t a good fit, or aren’t designed specifically for any device, and you gotta problem!

In the end my issue was solved by DSL Developments, a UK company specialising in Brodit car kits – they feature a universal mount, and then you get the right adaptor for your device – very logical and great quality!

Anyway, if you want to read my piece from not so long ago click here, and and if you want go straight to DSL Developments site, go here:

DSL Developments – Brodit UK

eXpansys have just let me know that some of the most popular deals they had on devices and accessories have come back in stock. There’s a nice selection between peripherals and also devices themselves, but the pick of the bunch IMHO is the HTC Magic – it’s a great device, and weighing in now at just £329.99 means that it’s now officially a bargain

Here is what’s on offer:

• GlobalSat WaterProof GPS Receiver
• GEAR4 Bluetooth Speaker System
• TomTom One Sat Nav
• Intel 80GB Solid State Drive
• Glofiish M810 WinMo Smartphone
• HTC Magic Smartphone

Of course, you could also try and win one in our current comp – to do that, click here!

[Via: eXpansys]

3G.co.uk are reporting that UK Supermarket Tesco is due to start stocking ‘Smartphones’. Presumably this is an attempt to drive up Subs on their MVNO network, but the fact that they are aiming to get eight handsets in-store by year-end, definitely means they are serious.

There is apparently some clarity on which the first two of these handsets will be – namely the Alcatel Tribe OT-800, and LG GW-300. These are budget devices, and depending on the definition you subscribe to, these don’t look to be strictly in the smartphones category, but rather devices that focus on messaging – both are rocking the QWERTY keyboard for example.

Tesco will of course be rolling out the usual incentives, such as free Internet access (for 3 months), and dropping the cost on the device itself – expect the Alcatel to weight in at about £50, with colour variants of pink and black.

I’m intrigued to see what the other handsets are – budget is good, but one of the keys to handset purchase is the desirability factor – and that’s something you mostly get with the from the usual handset vendor suspects…!

[Via: 3G.co.uk]

MobileFun have just sent me details through of an innovative charger for mobile devices – utilising the power of the wrist (oops, better be careful here), it also packs a torch inside too!

Environmentally friendly and money saving, it’s both compact and tough. A solid ergonomic design and powerful internal dynamo make this is an essential gadget for anyone travelling, camping, heading to festivals, going on holidays or just generally on the move with no power supply handy.

Order one today for only £9.95 and you’ll be in charge for life!

Limited stock available so don’t miss out!

Features:

• Small, portable design.
• Built-in torch.
• Includes connectors for Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE), BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) / MiniUSB, Motorola (NYSE: MOT), LG and iPod.

What’s included?

• Wind up charger
• Connectors
• Instructions