Touch

Verizon gets its own HTC Touch Pro

Without much fanfare, the HTC Touch Pro popped up on the Verizon Wireless Web site on Monday, complete with specs and pricing. The Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone is available for purchase online and through telephone sales now and in stores on December 1 for a pricey $349.99 with a two-year contract and after a mail-in rebate.

Verizon's version of the Touch Pro costs about $50 more than the Sprint model and AT&T's HTC Fuze, but offers many of the same features including a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, and a 3.2-megapixel … Read more

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Customers line up for new BlackBerry Storm

Hundreds of people lined up outside some Verizon Wireless stores to buy the new BlackBerry Storm on Friday, but many walked away empty handed.

The Storm, which has been hyped for months, went on sale Friday morning. The device is the first BlackBerry phone to have a touch screen, making it a strong competitor to the Apple iPhone on AT&T's network. Since Verizon Wireless announced it would be the exclusive U.S. carrier for the Storm, the wireless operator has been expecting it to be a hit. In fact, it's the only new phone the company … Read more

Marware Game Grip for iPhone and iPod Touch

The Sony PSP is a gaming system first and a media player second. The iPhone and iPod Touch are the other way around: media players first and gaming systems second...or third, or fourth. (And, yes, I say that the iPhone is a media player before a cell phone.) Regardless of what they are, there's no reason not to take full advantage of a device's secondary features. Enter the Marware Game Grip, a $50 case for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Now, if you're thinking that $50 is a bit over the top for a silicone device … Read more

RSS with a twist

Flickr photos, Twitter and Facebook updates, and RSS stories are depicted as rafts floating along a river in Ziibii's creative iPhone app. You can slow or speed the current by flicking the screen in either direction, or pause at any time to delete or select a "raft." If you tire of the free application's aquatic theme, you can switch to list view to get your headlines oriented vertically, then flick left and right to further browse. To read stories from just one source, tap on Filter to select it. We appreciate the ease of posting headlines … Read more

Ziibii: iPhone RSS with a twist

It isn't so much the technology behind Zumobi's free app Ziibii that refreshes RSS on the iPhone and iPod touch as it is its presentation. Ziibii, which means 'river' in Algonquin*, extends the metaphor to depict posts from your various RSS feeds as rafts floating along a stream of information.

Watching posts float by is fun concept--for a few minutes at least--and one that's heightened by the fact that stories, photos, and friends' status updates appear in random order as a round-up of all your RSS subscriptions.

Ziibii's feed flexibility is good, but not great. Twitter, … Read more

iPod Touch 2.2 update stops short

The iPhone isn't the only Apple product that received a firmware bump last night. The first- and second-generation iPod Touch were treated to a version 2.2 firmware update, as well. The update is free for users currently running firmware 2.0 or higher, and is available directly through iTunes.

For the most part, the firmware update for the Touch mirrors all the improvements made in last night's iPhone update. Users can now refresh their podcasts directly over Wi-Fi (hooray!), keyboard auto-correction can be switched off, and minor fixes have been made to Mail, Safari, Office Viewer, and … Read more

Verizon finally has its answer to the iPhone

Verizon Wireless may have found its iPhone killer.

On Friday, Verizon will be the first and only wireless carrier in the U.S. to offer Research in Motion's new BlackBerry Storm. The device, which costs $199 with a two-year contract and a $50 mail-in rebate, is the first phone that could give Apple's iPhone--offered exclusively on AT&T's network for the same price--a run for its money.

I checked out the new touch-screen phone this week and have been playing around with it for a few days. My first impression is that it's pretty … Read more

Why doesn't anyone care about HP?

In case you missed it, Hewlett-Packard announced today that it will be bringing a multitouch notebook to consumers in the form of the TouchSmart tx2. The device will feature a swivel, LED-backlit display, Windows Vista, and full touch capabilities on the screen.

That's quite the development. Sure, HP already had some touch-screen devices in the desktop market and other companies are trying desperately to make some headway in that space, but why has no one made such a big deal about the device?

I know what you're thinking: why should we make a big fuss about a device that has evolutionary capabilities and hasn't been put through the paces? We need to wait and see.

Sorry, I just don't buy that.

When Apple announced new MacBook Pros last month featuring its own multitouch capabilities in the trackpad, the world rejoiced. Consumers were already saying how they couldn't wait to pick one (or maybe two) up at the Apple store and every major news outlet was discussing it in minute detail. I turned the nightly news on when it was first announced and it was everywhere.

And yet, as HP ups the ante, we don't hear anything about its latest notebook.… Read more