Isaiah's Tech

Canada's WIND Mobile has just slashed their prices on two of their handsets, the HTC Maple and the Huawei U7519. The Maple is going for $200 - down from $300 - while the Huawei U7519 is now $90 - down from $130. You can credit Mobilicity with this price drop.

[Mobile Syrup]

• No contracts on services
• No activation fees
• No charge for incoming long distance
• No penalties for changing or canceling a plan
• Unlimited WIND to WIND calling
• All plans include caller ID, missed call alerts, call waiting, call hold, call forwarding, unlimited conference calling — no extra charge
• No charge for incoming text messages, ever
• No E911 fees

HTC has been known for their touchscreen devices, but not really for their QWERTY smartphones. The HTC Maple was announced at MWC and I'm pretty sure that this is it. The Maple and the Snap have a very similar design to each other which leads me to believe that this is the Maple. Besides the colour change, everything else looks just about the same. The Maple was supposed to be the first HTC phone with Inner Circle and was supposed to run Windows Mobile 6.1; well the Snap (S522) has both of those features. Let's focus now. The HTC Snap (S522) has a QWERTY keypad, a 528MHz Qualcomm processor, 256MB of ROM, 128MB of RAM, a 2MP camera, Bluetooth, microSDHC card slot, WiFi, aGPS, and HSDPA support (900 / 2100 for Europe and Asia; 850 / 1900 for North America). The Snap will run on Windows Mobile 6.1 - which ruins the phone - and will be only 12mm thin. The Snap (S522) is the first HTC phone to sport the new Inner Circle feature. Inner Circle "can selectively pull emails from certain contacts to the top of your inbox." The Snap will launch globally this quarter, so you won't have to wait too long for it. The price has not been set for the device, but it should be announced soon.

[Engadget]

Facebook will be changing their Home page layout. When i logged on today, i actually got a message saying that they will be changing the Home page layout, so it's good to see that Facebook is keeping its users up-to-date. This could be Facebook's answer to Twitter. I have a Twitter account, but i still don't know exactly what i can use it for. Twitter is basically made up of Facebook statuses and Facebook inboxes. Nothing else. Maybe i'm using it wrong or something, but i don't really see the point as to why its population is growing. I also don't know why this would be Facebook's "shot" at Twitter because Twitter is way behind Facebook in almost every aspect. If anything, Twitter should be trying to take Facebook off of it's throne. All of that said, Facebook has decided to take off the 5,000 friend limit and they've changed the overall layout of the home page. There is also word that instead of updating your home page about every 10 minutes, it will do so at a much faster pace (live updates?). If you want to read more about Facebook's changes, go to the links below.

Go Canada! RIM has released the app store for their Blackberries. It is called... wait for it... BlackBerry App World. Who needs an App Store or an Android Market when you've got the world. +1 RIM.

Just in case you cared about Windows Vista [still], Microsoft has released the Vista SP2 RC to the public. Everyone just do yourself a favour and get your hands on the Windows 7 beta because Vista is officially dead.

Some of HTC's upcoming phones have been revealed. Partially, that is. Some new leaks have revealed some new specs for 5 devices / phones, including: Whitestone, Firestone (supposed HTC Touch HD successor), Thor (or Thoth or Athena 2), Twin and Maple. Keep in mind that [i think] these are just codenames. Anyways, let's start it off with the Whitestone. This phone will have a 3.6-inch touchscreen, a Qualcomm 7600 528MHz processor, a 5MP camera and will run on WinMo 6.1 Pro (sucks). This will be available in September through Verizon. Next up is the Firestone which will have a 3.6-inch touchscreen, a Qualcomm 8250 600MHz processor, an 8MP camera and will run on WinMo 6.5 which is a slight improvement. This phone is said to be the HTC Touch HD successor, but i still prefer the Touch HD's looks over this one. This phone will be available in September also, but the carrier is unknown. The next device is the Thor. I call it a device because i'm not sure if it is a phone, seeing how it supposedly has a 4.8-inch touchscreen (could be a typo from Boy Genius Reports). Anyways, it has a Qualcomm 8250 1GHz processor, a 5MP camera and will also run on WinMo 6.5. Again, it will also be released in September, but the carrier is unknown. The Twin looks like it is the most basic phone out of all of the aforementioned ones. The Twin will have a VGA display (size unknown), a Qualcomm 7501A 528MHz processor and a 3.2 MP camera. Availability is unknown. The last phone on the list is the Maple which i've already talked about before. It will have a 2.4-inch screen, a Qualcomm 7228 528MHz processor, 2MP camera and will run on WinMo 6.1. It is scheduled to be released in May. This phone could also have the QWERTY keypad and "Inner Circle" that was also mentioned in my other post.

Facebook Redesigning Home Page (and picture): http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/04/facebooks-response-to-twitter/
Facbook Changes The Home Page: http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/03/04/facebook-relaunching-home-page-news-feed-going-live-next-wednesday/
RIM's App Store (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/04/rim-names-its-app-store-blackberry-app-world/
Windows Vista SP2 RC: http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=2224
HTC's Lineup Partially Revealed (and picture): http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/03/04/htcs-2009-line-up-gets-specd/
HTC Firestone picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5164375/htcs-2009-lineup-leaked-includes-touch-hd-successor

Always Innovating (a brand) are working on the Touch Book. It looks like a cross between a netbook and a tablet. You can mount the screen onto the keyboard to make it into a netbook or you can unmount the screen to make it a touchscreen tablet. This is an awesome design and quite futuristic (more on that later). When in the "netbook mode" you can lay out the keyboard and screen flat, so that you can mount it on a fridge, if you'd like. This machine will run using the Linux OS which will drive a few people away from the device. Always Innovating is claiming this device will run for 10 to 15 hours and they also mentioned that it's ARM-powered. It also weighs less than 2 pounds, will ship in the Springtime and will have a starting price tag of $299 USD which, i think, is pretty cheap. You can view the image gallery here, via Engadget.

Another HTC phone being released on WinMo may turn you off, but it's the HTC Maple. It's the successor to the old HTC Cavalier. It has a landscape QWERTY keypad, a trackball, and what HTC is calling the "Inner Circle." It "seems to aggregate communication with people you care about depending on the time of day and day of week." HTC talked a bit about it at MWC, so it would only makes sense that this would be what the hell they were talking about. No price or release date yet.

I'm going to call it the PSP-4000 and not the PSP 2 because the new rumours of the slide-out PSP screen will reportedly have the same hardware. This would necessarily make the "new" PSP a "complete" upgrade. "The screen is supposedly the same as the PSP-3000, with the only difference being that it can slide. When in the 'closed' position, the unit will be 'significantly smaller in width' and most controls will be inaccessible; however, should button-only games like LocoRoco will be playable while in this state." I think this is kind of dumb and my friend points out that Sony should consider placing a second analog stick onto the updated PSP (kind of like how the picture is). The PSP-4000 is rumoured to be released by the end of this year, just in time for Christmas. I think this new PSP is fairly lame, since it will go UMD-less. 100% digital is not for me. I don't like ninja-ing my mom's credit card.

This picture is what Microsoft thinks will be the future. The picture ranges from "lots of Surface action -- extending from tables to walls and beyond." It seems like a pretty expensive concept to me and who knows when this will be available. 3D projectors and touchscreen walls, yeah man. You will even be able to view your stocks on the windows, now how cool is that, right? You can see a video about it here if you scroll down, via Engadget.

Always Innovating Touch Book (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/02/touch-book-from-always-innovating-harbors-removable-tablet-netb/
HTC Maple (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/02/meet-maple-htcs-cavalier-successor-caught-in-the-wild/
PSP-4000 (and picture): http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/02/rumorang-psp-4000-details-leaked/
The Future According To Microsoft (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/02/microsoft-shows-a-glimpse-at-the-future-of-computing-and-the-peo/