i Phone BUY

Motorola VE440

(Credit: Motorola)

Motorola is no stranger to MetroPCS and Monday the manufacturer tightened the relationship even further with the new VE440. Positioned as a low-end music phone, the VE440’s candy bar design and functional feature set won’t amaze you, but it offers a few welcome goodies …

Originally posted at Dialed In Podcast

Welcome to the 411, my Q&A column answering all your questions about cell phones and cell phone accessories. I receive plenty of questions about these subjects via e-mail, so I figured many of you might have the same questions, too. At times, I might solicit answers from readers if …

Originally posted at Dialed In Podcast

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)

On Monday, Palm set free its lastest WebOS update for the Palm Pre, bringing quite a number of new features to the smartphone and addresses several security issues.

If you haven’t received it already, Palm WebOS 1.2 will arrive as an over-the-air update to …

Originally posted at Dialed In Podcast

Intel's Light Peak technology uses lasers and fiber optics to transfer data to and from PCs and other devices.

(Credit: Intel)

SAN FRANCISCO–You’ve probably heard about fiber optics for years–some kind of exotic technology used to carry gargantuan quantities of data across continents. But in the not-too-distant future, you might be plugging these tiny glass strands straight into your computer.

That’s if Intel gets its way. At its Intel Developer Forum last week, the chipmaker demonstrated fiber-optic technology called Light Peak for connecting many devices to PCs with fiber optic lines. Intel secured major Light Peak endorsement from Sony and now it’s has begun trying to make it into an industry standard.

But bringing optical technology to the masses will require more than Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner taking the stage to connect a thin white Light Peak cable into the back of a prototype PC. According to sources familiar with the situation, the most likely mechanism to carry Light Peak out of the R&D lab to the edge of your laptop will be the venerable Universal Serial Bus, and Intel has begun pounding the pavement to try to make that happen.

“Now all the pieces are in place,” Rattner said. “We need to get a standard established to turn on the entire ecosystem to Light Peak.”

…

Originally posted at Deep Tech

Meet the latest e-book reader: the Irex DR800SG.

(Credit: Irex)

Didn’t get around to reading every word on Crave this week? Luckily, our trusty Crave roundup can help catch you up on some of the big stories you missed while you were doing other, more important things (though <…

Nokia N97 Mini

(Credit: Nokia)

Nokia’s recently announced N97 Mini passed through the FCC this week along with what could be an update to the Samsung Instinct line. Because the FCC has to certify every phone sold in the United States, not to mention test its SAR rating, the …

As promised, the Apple iPhone finally has the capability to send multimedia messages to another phone number. Whatever AT&T had to do to gets its act together, the carrier did it.

The update went live just a moment ago, and I’ve successfully sent my first MMS on CNET’…

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

(Credit: Screenshot by Bonnie Cha/CNET)

The Palm Pre got a nice little $50 price cut when Palm introduced its second WebOS device, the Palm Pixi. Sprint now offers the Pre for $149.99 with a two-year contract and $100 mail-in rebate, but there’s a better deal to be …

Originally posted at Dialed In Podcast

The Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch

(Credit: Wacom)

Wacom’s pressure-sensitive tablets have already been pretty great at what they do, but they’ve added a simple and appreciated wrinkle for Windows 7 and Mac OSX multitouch addicts: their new pads now double as giant multitouch pads, too.

Available in a

…

(Credit: Nintendo)

Nintendo has officially announced that the price of the Wii will drop to $199.99, effective on Sunday. The long-rumored $50 price cut comes in the wake of recent price drops for the PlayStation 3 ($299, with built-in Blu-ray player) and Xbox 360 ($299 for the 120GB version …

I got the Jesus phone and a Platinum Plus card. Isn’t that enough street cred for you?

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)

I’m not a fan of protective case for gadgets (which, as long as they function, are fine the way they are, even with a few scratches). For …

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

(Credit: Lomography)

Oh my awesome! If you’re looking to turn your digital SLR into a toy camera, Lomography’s new adapters for Diana F+ lenses let you do it for cheap. They were announced a few days ago, but that doesn’t make them any less cool.

The $12 …

Back in August we wrote about the impending arrival of a new, touch-screen, wireless-enabled e-reader from Irex, and now the company has officially unveiled the product, the DR800SG, which boasts a 8.1-inch screen and costs $399.

While Sprint provides the Amazon Kindle’s wireless service, the Irex e-reader will use Verizon for its 3G wireless connectivity. As with the Kindle, the “free” wireless plan offers unlimited e-book and periodical downloads and is included in the price of the DR800SG.

Irex reps previously said that they would be pairing their new e-reader with a large e-book retailer, and not surprisingly, the DR800SG has a tie-in with Barnes & Noble’s e-bookstore. For newspaper and other periodicals, Irex continues an already established partnership with NewspaperDirect, which serves up “1,140 newspapers from 87 countries in 41 languages in their original layout.”

Just as importantly, Irex has brokered a deal with Best Buy to sell the DR800SG in Best Buy stores nationwide. According to the New Times, this week “Best Buy is training thousands of its employees in how to talk about and demonstrate devices like the Sony Reader and Irex, and adding a new area to its 1,048 stores to showcase the devices.”

Here are the DR800SG’s highlights:
…