Let me start out by saying I’m one of the many iPhone diehards that parade around the interwebs… in truth, I’m using an old Motorola Razor with the battery taped in and 1/2 the screen blank due to some drunken mishaps involving tequila .

With that over and done with, the new Blackberry Bold successfully achieved nothing in terms of advancing on the iPhone market. Despite the camera being 2 megapixels (which is still trash by camera standards) and the retention of their keyboard, I’m not seeing the big deal about this lil gadget.

From US News.com:

A new hand-held joins the BlackBerry family, but we’ll withhold the oohs and ahs despite the “Bold” name. The phone appears to be a good step forward—and not much more.

The Bold essentially soups up earlier BlackBerry models, adding a higher-resolution screen that has some reviewers singing its praises. And Kevin Micaluk at CrackBerry.com has a gushing review of the phone’s look and feel, having scored one off eBay. The phone doesn’t officially go on sale until this summer.

Besides its sharp screen, the handset works on high-speed data networks and includes Wi-Fi networking, both pluses. The camera captures a hefty 2 megapixels, and the media player syncs with Apple’s iTunes software.

Meh. No touchscreen, no dice.

A producer friend of mine just turned me onto to something he was justifiably excited about, a third-party application for the Apple iPhone that allows it to remotely control ProTools. This would allow someone to monitor their fader automation and any sort of other conceivable adjustments from outside the control room, or conceivably outside the studio altogether. Real shit. No wonder Apple continues to stack mad fucking loot. Now if we could just get them to make the iCar, iKid, iWife, iBeer, etc, life would be so, so much better.

Samsung is launching a touch screen cellular device that it hopes will compete with Apple’s wildly popular and equally expensive iPhone. The Korean technology company announced today its plans for the Instinct, which will be available to Sprint customers. The fully touch-screen device will be available in June. What will the Instinct be able to do for you? EVERYTHING. I’m lazy so here’s a lengthy block quote.

According to Sprint, the Instinct features a touch-screen with localized tactile feedback, called haptics, which allow the virtual QWERTY keypad and other operations to become “a sensory experience.” The mobile phone also features a Voice to Action button offering access to functions through voice activation, including call, text, picture message, traffic, movie, sports, news and search.

The device measures 2.17 inches by 4.57 inches by 0.49 inches and weighs less than 4.5 ounces, Sprint said. It features advanced functions like Visual Voicemail, which lets users listen to messages in their order of preference and manage them with a screen tap. It also offers support for corporate and consumer POP3 email accounts, multitasking that lets users play music in background mode while surfing the Internet, texting or playing games; a 2.0 megapixel camera with camcorder and expandable microSD memory of up to 8 Gb. Other features include stereo Bluetooth 2.0; an integrated world clock, SMS voice and text messaging with threaded text, phone as a modem, picture caller ID and Sprint Mobile Sync.

The Samsung Instinct marks Sprint’s first EV-DO Rev. A consumer device. It offers Web browsing, business and personal email access, picture sharing, commercial-free radio and other features at broadband speeds. Additionally, the device opens up access to Sprint exclusive services and multimedia content including Sprint Navigation, a system powered by Telenav with GPS-enabled audio and visual turn-by-turn driving directions, one-click traffic rerouting and more than 10 million local listings; and live search, delivered through Microsoft, which offers access to director information, GPS-enabled directions, interactive maps and one-touch click-to-call access.

The Instinct also boasts entertainment features like Sprint TV, which offers live and on-demand programming; Sprint Exclusive Entertainment, a made-for-mobile sports and entertainment video programming network; and Sprint Music Store, which lets users browse and wirelessly download full songs directly to the device for $0.99 each.

Lastly, the device offers Pocket Express, which gives up-to-date information on sports, weather, news, movie times and other customized options based on the user’s zip code.

The only thing that it won’t help you with is getting laid, but you’ll be so distracted by all it’s other features, you probably won’t care. And really who has time for sex or any other sort of human interaction if you’re going to be pestered by constant e-mails from your boss, clients, etc. all the fucking time? Sprint is hoping that the Instinct will win back some of their customers who jumped ship for AT&T when they became the US’s sole handler of the iPhone, but seeing as these defectors probably had to sign ridiculous contracts to do so (AT&T owns my soul too), I’m wondering if it’ll take a couple years before Sprint starts seeing dividends.

The battle is on, however, and Sprint is quick to fire the first shot, saying of the Instinct’s release that “slow ends in June,” a pot shot at the iPhone’s fickle functionality. Pricing is still not determined, but Sprint says the Instinct will be under $300; meanwhile, the cheapest iPhone is around $100 more.

Picture courtesy of Gizmodo.

You don’t want to mess with DVD Jon.

At 16, he released software which broke the copy protection on Hollywood films.

Now, at 24, he released software that lets iPod owners copy music and videos bought from iTunes and play it on other devices such as Nokia N-series mobile phones, Sony Ericsson’s Walkman and Cybershot handsets, as well as any smartphone powered by Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system. His company, doubleTwist, maintains that its service is legal, but lawyers said that Apple would almost certainly seek to shut it down because the law now specifically targeted technologies which attempted to circumvent measures such as DRM (digital rights management).

Back in July, he found a way to activate a brand new unactivated iPhone without signing up for AT&T service. “The iPhone does not have phone capability, but the iPod and Wi-Fi work. Stay tuned!” he wrote on his long-running blog, which is combatively named So Sue Me. The post was entitled “iPhone Independence Day”.

And he looks like such a nice boy.

Hey, Internet Junkies! You can now be your own personal, portable hot spot. Even if you live in a cave, there’s no longer an excuse.

The device that transforms this humdrum domestic into a shining example of go-anywhere, do-anything internet is the Autonet Mobile Wi-Fi router. Currently available only through Avis for $11 per day, the paperback-sized gadget plugs directly into an AC power adapter. Once a security ID number is punched in, the router blazes to life and delivers encrypted Wi-Fi within a 100-foot radius. Suddenly, actions unheard of in an automobile are possible: surfing the internet, syncing GPS or just looking for directions on an iPhone.

I sat here this morning on pins and needles, constantly clicking the “refresh” button on my POS PC’s web browser dreaming of being at the Macworld 2008 exhibit… and marrying Steve Jobs.

iWant.

The biggest thing that was announced during the keynote speech was not a new version of the iPhone, like I was hoping for. (What glee I would have gotten from seeing all my coworkers who just bought the new iPhone be one-upped by my purchase of a newer, BETTER iPhone). No, it was the MacBook Air that stole the show in all it’s 0.16 inch glory. DDDDDAMM, son. I don’t know how they do it. The people that work for Apple are of a magical kind. Here’s the deets…

It’s got a 13.3-inch display, and it’s LED backlit. It has the same built-in iSight camera as the other notebooks, and it’s got what Jobs claims is a full-size keyboard, which is also backlit. The trackpad is “generous,” and it has multitouch gesture support that expands upon the gesture support already present in MacBooks. Double-tapping moves a whole window, rather than just the cursor. Moving around a photo is like on the iPhone, a two-finger approach on the touchpad when viewing a photo. Pinching, as well, zooms in and out of photos, just like on the iPhone. 1.8-inch hard drive, just like the iPod Classic. This one ships with 80GBs, and you’ve got the option of a “pricey” 64GB solid-state drive. It’s also got a very slim motherboard. This system uses Intel’s Core 2 Duo, running at 1.6GHz standard, and you can go to 1.8GHz. It’s not clear if that’s an ultra-low voltage version or a standard version. wireless feature that allows Macs or even PCs to share optical drives. MacBook Air has MagSafe, a smaller power adapter, and the usual ports. 802.11n ships standard with the new MacBook, plus Bluetooth 2.1 and EDR. No optical drive is built-in, but Apple designed a $99 add-on optical drive if you really need it. The MacBook Air’s Remote Disk feature would allow you to install software from a neighboring (assuming it’s friendly) Mac or PC’s optical drive. It weighs 3 pounds, comes with 2GBs of memory standard, an 80GB standard hard drive, and 802.11n. It’s going to cost $1,799 in that configuration.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

HP, eat your heart out. And I’m off to find myself a sugar-daddy.