For voice and data alike, “unlimited” is a major buzzword among value carriers like Cricket, Virgin Mobile, and Boost Mobile lately — and when they can offer it for $10 or $20 less than the big guys, why shouldn’t it be? Boost is slicing the unlimited option in a new way this week with the announcement that it’s now offering unlimited nationwide voice, messaging, web, IM, email, and information for $2 a day, which if our rough math is correct, works out to $60 a month. That’s $10 a more than you pay if you just bite the bullet and prepay on a monthly basis, but obviously it’s a heck of a lot more flexible, too — and with these prepaid guys, flexibility is king.

Article: RSS via: Engadget Mobile

Verizon announced today that they are now offering Unlimited and 25MB 3G data plans for their pre-paid users. The pricing seems reasonable as well — at least on the unlimited plan, which comes in at at $30. At $10 a month, the 25MB plan is a bit steep. Be careful about overages on that 25MB plan; Verizon will charge you $0.20 per megabyte if you exceed your limit.

You can buy the pre-paid plans at Verizon stores today, but they won’t be available online until September 28th.

There is one catch though: Verizon is limiting the new plans to most of their 3G smartphones and multimedia phones, including the Blackberry, Palm, and most Android phones.

Article: RSS via: MobileCrunch

Network gets its paws on the 7-inch phone/tablet hybrid

Vodafone has revealed that it will be launching the Samsung Galaxy Tab in the UK in partnership with the Korean giant.

“Vodafone’s aim is to offer all customers new and attractive ways to enjoy mobile data, on the move, across a variety of devices”, said Patrick Chomet, group director of terminals at Vodafone.

“Adding tablets as part of our device range is a natural next step that gives customers an alternative way to enjoy great content and internet services”.

“The Galaxy Tab is another showcase for Samsung’s innovation capabilities and we’re pleased to be introducing this across a number of our markets”.

DJ Lee, SVP of Samsung Electronics said:

“I am very excited to introduce Samsung Galaxy Tab with Vodafone. Thanks to Vodafone’s strong promotion and co-marketing with us, Samsung Galaxy Tab can be an outstanding smart media device to lead a new media revolution”.

“With Galaxy Tab, users enjoy full web browsing with flash 10.1 support, reading eBooks, newspapers, or magazines, and watching HD videos on the large enough 7-inch display while on the move. Furthermore, it is still compact enough to carry everywhere”.

The Galaxy Tab will go on sale in October, although it isn’t yet clear if Vodafone has the exclusive rights, or merely first dibs.

Article: RSS via: Pocket-lint

We’ve caught glimpse of Galaxy Tab’s accessories before but here are some new pictures of the accessories that will be available when the tablet goes on sale. Few accessories pictured here are a protection sleeve that will be available in leather or synthetic; a Docking Station with capability to charge the device and an HDMI-out to output content from the tablet to your HDTV; a full size keyboard; and a Car dock that can be mounted on the windshield and can be used a GPS navigation device.

Check out more accessories on Galaxy Tab’s official site below.

Samsung Galaxy Tab

Article: RSS via: Samsung Hub

IFA 2010: It’s finally arrived and it is indeed a great big phone

Well, we all knew it was coming, so it’s hardly a surprise…but the Samsung Galaxy Tab has gone and got all official over at IFA.

The Froyo (Android 2.2) running device has a 7-inch, 1024 x 600, TFT-LCD display and, yes, it is a mahoosive phone.

That’s right – this isn’t a mere tablet that we’re talking about here – it’s a fully functional mobile phone with all of the usual features like texting and MMS on board.

“For voice telephony, the Samsung Galaxy Tab turns out to be a perfect speakerphone on the desk, or a mobile phone on the move via Bluetooth headset”, says Samsung.

As well as the telephone features you’re looking at a very smart tablet indeed.

“Powered by a Cortex A8 1GHz application processor, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is designed to deliver high performance whenever and wherever you are. At the same time, HD video content is supported by a wide range of multimedia formats (DivX, XviD, MPEG4, H.263, H.264 and more), which maximizes the joy of entertainment”.

It has 512MB of RAM, 3G HSDPA connectivity, 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0, as well as video conferencing and push email. There’s a front facing 1.3-megapixel camera for video calling and there’s also a 3-megapixel camera on the back for image and video capture.

Storage wise, there will be 16 and 32GB options, with up to 32GB more with a memory card extension. It has a 4000mAh battery giving you an impressive 7 hours of video playback.

It has a gyroscope sensor, geo-magnetic sensor, accelerometer and a light sensor all on board as well.

Samsung is also talking up the software on board, including its new Readers Hub, Media Hub and Music Hub which will be your one stop-shops for all your digital content.

Samsung is also keen to point out the “full web browsing” on the Galaxy Tab – with Flash 10.1 player support.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab is out in mid-September. Pocket-lint will bring you price details as soon as we have them.

Article: RSS via: Pocket-lint

Texting has never been so much fun, thanks to the high-speed magic of the keyboard that could: Swype. But I know there are a lot of sad pandas out there who want to Swype, but just can’t because they own a Nokia.

Well, you can turn that frown upside down, matey, as Swype is now available for S60 5th Edition through Nokia Beta Labs!

Now, now, before you get too excited, I have to let you know that it is currently only available for the Nokia N97, N97mini, X6, 5800, and 5230, with other devices coming later.

Do you have one of those phones? Everything you need to install it on said phone can be found here.

If you don’t know what I’m talkin’ ’bout, you can check this helpful video (with a peculiar voice-over), below:

Article: RSS via: MobileCrunch

IFA 2010: SF notebook line-up unveiled as well

Samsung has used IFA 2010 as the platform to launch its latest line-up of notebooks – and they come in all shapes and sizes.

The most exciting announcement was of the Samsung NF310 netbook that is packing the next-generation Intel Atom N550, dual-core, chip.

This monster netbook also boasts a 1366 x 768 HD resolution, DDR3 RAM, and Windows 7.

Also in the netbook lineup is the NF210 and the NF110, that may not have the next-gen CPU of their bigger brother but still come wrapped in the sexy looking glossy exterior and boast incredible battery life – a whopping 14 hours for the NF210.

Samsung also announced the SF notebook range including the 13.3-inch SF310, the 14-inch SF410 and the 15.6-inch SF510.

These machines have Intel i3 or i5 dual-core processors, hybrid graphics (Intel for the less demanding and Nvidia for the good stuff) and also look just as cool as the NF range.

Seongwoo Nam, executive VP at Samsung Electronics, said: “Inspired and elegantly crafted, this new lineup is truly representative of our efforts to come up with a new style in mobile computers”.

“I believe that Samsung’s new mobile computer designs are fresh and will drive design trends across the computer industry and satisfy style-conscious users”.

The new PCs are due to hit Europe in October – no prices have yet been confirmed.

Article: RSS via: Pocket-lint

We’ve always felt that music should be available wherever you are. Whether you’re at work, on the go or simply relaxing at home, having music at your fingertips is crucial to our users -- which is why today we’re excited to introduce Spotify on Sonos.

To give you a little taste of what Spotify and Sonos can do when combined, check out the video we put together.

The Sonos Wireless Multi-Room Music System makes it extremely easy to access all your existing Spotify playlists and our entire catalogue in every corner of your home. Just put a Sonos ZonePlayer, like the all-in-one Sonos S5, in any or all of your rooms, sit back and enjoy the music.

Maybe you want to play the same track throughout your house, or mix it up by playing different tracks in separate rooms? Never a problem with Spotify and Sonos.

You can control your Sonos system from the Sonos controller, the Sonos iPhone app or from any computer and stream different tracks to different rooms of the house, all in pitch perfect sound quality.

Spotify Premium listeners will be able to access Spotify on their Sonos systems at the end of the month with an update to Sonos’ software. We’ll be sure to update everyone once it’s ready. In the meantime, be sure to visit Sonos and learn more about their great wireless systems.

You’ll just love Spotify on the Sonos wireless system.

Article: RSS via: Spotify

As he was boasting that Apple is activating 230,000 iOS devices a day at Apple’s San Francisco event yesterday, Steve Jobs took the opportunity to accuse competitors of boosting their numbers when it comes to device activations.

“We think some of our friends are counting upgrades in their numbers,” said Jobs, most probably referring to the recent figures from Google, whose Eric Schmidt claimed 200,000 activations daily in August 2010.

Google has quickly responded to Jobs’ allegations. In a response to an inquiry from Fortune, a Google spokesperson said: “The Android activation numbers do not include upgrades and are, in fact, only a portion of the Android devices in the market since we only include devices that have Google services.”

So there you have it: according to Google, it might even have more than 200,000 Android device activations every day. Who do you trust: Apple or Google?

Article: RSS via: Mashable

Twitter-addicts out there who own an iPad will probably be overjoyed to hear that Twitter has officially released Twitter for iPad, offering some interesting user interface (UI) tweaks that you probably haven’t seen before. Media viewing has been optimized for the iPad, and videos play in-line with other content, not to mention that it can be loaded while you’re busy browsing through your timeline. One of the more interesting interface tweaks is that when you pinch a tweet, you’ll be able to see details about the author and also have a list of actions that you can perform, such as replying and retweeting. A two-finger pull-down gesture will show the entire conversation around the tweet. If you have an iPad, give it a test drive and see the difference for yourself. [iTunes link]

Article: RSS via: Ubergizmo