Motorola Sholes in the flesh

While I could go on and on with senseless ramblings and other useless banter, just taking a minute to stop and really take in what is above you right now is more important. We’ll leave on a good note by saying that the upcoming Android love on Verizon has a very nice home on the Sholes. *Picks up drool cup*

BGR

Satellite/Cellular Hybrid phone coming to AT&T

Want to make a call or send a text but can’t because your normal AT&T phone keeps dropping calls? *Soon* you’ll be able to look no further than the Genus. A love child created between new found partners TeraStar and AT&T are aimed at bringing expanded coverage to remote areas via satellite. The handset will allow users to “seamlessly” switch between satellite and cellular networks without hiccup. While the Genus is being marketed towards more government and utility companies, AT&T and TeraStar claim to have a consumer model en route. First, the specs for the Genus:

• 2.6″ Touchscreen

• uad-band GSM/EDGE — Dual-band UMTS/HSDPA 3G

• Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/GPS

• Windows Mobile

Users of the Genus will be required to pay for a standard minutes and data plan as well as pay additional charges when roaming via satellite. While I don’t see big government entities having issues handling the associated operating costs, if these two friends have any hopes of getting a consumer model to be even remotely popular, minutes/data/satellite roaming plans are going to have to go on a thorough diet. Last time I checked paying to use such services via a satellite link were damn near astronomical. Still, I’d love to try one. Wouldn’t you?

PhoneScoop

Make your own Google Street View camera system cheap!

If you’ve seen any one of the many pictures floating around the interwebs that shows Google’s “chase vehicle” with the infamous Street View camera system mounted above and ever imagined owning your own, you were usually quickly shot down by your own mind as Google would never lend/sell you one. So, being the geek that Roy D. Ragsdale is decided to take matters into his own hands and build his very own Google Street view device. And knock the ball out of the park he did. For only $300, Roy constructed himself a Google Street View-esque system that while not as polished physically, functions perfectly. According to Roy:

Construction was straightforward. On a flat octagonal heavy-cardboard base, I glued small posts for the cameras’ clips to latch onto. I aligned each unit and then placed the USB hubs and the GPS receiver in the middle. I secured the cables with Velcro and sandwiched everything with another piece of cardboard. The whole thing’s the size of a small pizza box, weighing less than 1 kilogram. Excluding the notebook (a 2-gigahertz machine with 512 megabytes of RAM running Ubuntu Linux), the hardware cost about $300.

Perhaps the coolest part isn’t the fact that this guy built his own Street View equipment but instead has plans to refine it further. Subtle modifications such as removing the cases around the cameras and ditching the notebook which powers and organizes the whole digital get together by replacing it with a simple circuit board. Such measures will result in a system small enough to mount on something even as small as a hat Roy claims. Now that is cool! If you want to find out the dirty details and all the needed parts to make his system work, hit up the IEEE link below.

Start planning your own Street View creations in 3..2..

Wired > IEEE Spectrum

The pinnacle of novelty mouse pads: The Hamburger Hut USB Mouse Pad

If you’re going to give a novelty gift, you might as well go over the top. Go geeky. Even though more sophisticated and advanced mice are making mouse pads obsolete, that doesn’t mean people will leave the classic piece of computer tech behind. Either because they have some sic fetish with mouse pads, or they are technologically incompetent and stand by the belief that a mouse pad is needed with any mouse is beside the point, the Hamburger Hut USB Mouse Pad is the mouse pad to get. Featuring a shape that is common with a hamburger, the this mouse pad one ups other pads by making itself a “pocket” design giving your feeble little digits a place to cozy up during those long winter months. Further bolstering that “coziness” is the fact that it plugs in to your USB port giving you subtle yet life sustaining heat. You know, as corny as the Hamburger Mouse Pad is, I still want one. $14 isn’t too much is it? Am I alone in my little corner?

• Purchase the Hamburger USB Warmer Mouse Pad

Gizmodo > Gadget4All

Sprint does one for the little guy. Drops Touch Pro2 down to $199 [Update]

Even though I’m not very well versed (read: not at all) in the Windows Mobile world, the Touch Pro2 is a striking handset with good looking hardware and some pretty decent specs to boot. The sky high price tag a couple retailers such as Sprint and T-Mobile were charging was a huge sticking point however. Sure the TP2 is a good phone, but is it $349 good? Many and I would venture to say most would claim “No”. Noticing the math error, Sprint has gone ahead and restored some sense of civility to their high end line up by bringing the TP2 price tag down a few notches where it should be more widely accepted. The price by the way comes in at $199 though it’s worth noting you’re going to have to do the whole MIR tango to get your cash back. Still it’s a lot better than before. With Sprint pulling back on the price as well as Verizon’s already low TP2 price means we could see TMO bring their TP2 asking price crashing down as well. Hey you know how it is — when businesses compete, the consumer wins.

By the way, if you happen to be one of the poor souls reading this and simultaneously planning to bash your face into the screen you may want to hold off and give eCare a call. Doing so could net you a $100 credit. That is of course if you purchased your TP2 within the last 30 days. Day 31?….resume face smashing plans…

**Update here
BGR > PPC Geeks

iPhone users love their phone, HATE the network. *Shocker*

I’ve complained about AT&T’s performance enough for several people. And apparently my feelings of ill will and malice aren’t alone as a recent study conducted by CFI Group which polled over 1,000 AT&T iPhone users on their device and network. The first test point centered around the users perception of owning their ideal phone. No surprise here. The iPhone scored a 92% rate here — top of the class. Trailing further behind, Android and Pre users rang in at 77%, BlackBerry (73%), Treo (70%), and last but certainly not least the “other” group made up of misfits as well as Symbian and WinMo brought home the bottom of the barrel with a paltry 66%. In all reality, these numbers aren’t anything surprising.

The big kicker I want to mention before AT&T goes and starts tooting their own horn (since they’re the sole U.S. iPhone provider and all) is that a full 50% of respondents faulted the network for poor performance. Conversely however, those same 50% who couldn’t stand the network, also weren’t willing to give up their “ideal phone”. It’s a vicious “free roaming prison” in a sense and AT&T knows it. But, since they have the exclusive iPhone deal they can pretty much do whatever they want and through customer satisfaction and any caring to the wind. Other providers to watch closely and step it up behind closed doors by inking a deal to pick up the iPhone when AT&T’s exclusivity runs out. Doing so will guarantee a flood of new users once they defect to greener pastures and the first time in many years that AT&T’s profits and subscriber base could even go backwards. The day of reckoning couldn’t come soon enough…

So in the end, nothing we already didn’t know. But does a “legitimate” study make you feel any better?

GigaOM

And so it begins again…Windows “officially supported” logo program

While the “Vista Capable” logo and moniker were nothing short of a joke and outright crime towards humanity, the announcement today featuring details of a revised and lengthened testing program for Win7 testing mean the resulting hardware should actually be…well…capable of running said software. To date, 6,000+ hardware hopefuls have made the cut meaning just about any desktop or laptop you choose will be good to go when the time comes to make the 7 switch. With one of the Win7 labels even bringing 64-bit support under it’s wings, you can be rest assured that uselessness that is the Atom processor will be no where in sight. That is until Intel lets loose their next gen Pineview processors, which bring with them officially supported, Win7 capable Atom processors. Oh joy.

Engadget > Windows Team Blog