Isaiah's Tech

According to Sony Ericsson North America's official Twitter account they will be announcing something tomorrow. We don't know what it is yet, but I hope that it's the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2 and the XPERIA "Rachael." This is all wishful hoping though, since Sony Ericsson could announce any of their upcoming handsets. I just hope it's the two high-end phones that we actually care about, since Sony Ericsson is going downhill.

[Unwired View]

It basically confirmed itself. "That SGH-T939 Behold2 spotted in the WiFi Alliance's documents turns out to be Android-equipped without question, seeing how its user agent profile -- found on Samsung's own site -- lists its browser as 'Android Browser.'" Since the original Behold launched on T-Mobile it's a safe bet that the Behold2 will also launch on T-Mobile. I guess this is the replacement for the HTC Hero, since y'know T-Mobile won't be launching it. Let's see if it's just as good though. Price and availability are still unknown.

[Engadget Mobile]

Did you scoop up the Hello Kitty Phone 3G yesterday? If so, here's the notebook that will show off your Sanrio Hello Kitty fanboy-ness. Epson will be pushing out two versions of their Endeavor NJ2150 notebook. The NJ2150 notebook has: a 15.4-inch display, five USB 2.0 ports, a 3-in-1 card reader, WiFi a/b/g/n, and Windows Vista Home Premium.

The - non-Hello Kitty - "standard" version will sport an Intel Celeron 900 2.2GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, an 80GB HDD and will cost $1,350 USD. The Hello Kitty "high-end" version will come with: an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.53GHz P8700 CPU, 2GB of RAM, a 160GB HDD and will cost $1,650 USD. The Hello Kitty model will also come equipped with some cute [Hello Kitty] wallpapers and screensavers.

These two notebooks will be available on July 17 at select Sanrio stores in Tokyo and the Japanese Sanrio online store. If you don't live in Japan, you can check out the Japan Trend Shop or Geek Stuff 4 U.

[Crunch Gear]

Today, eMachines just released their latest all-in-one PC, the EZ1601-01 - awfully similar to the EZ1600 we saw back in April. This all-in-one PC has: an 18.5-inch display with a 16:9 aspect ratio, an Intel Atom 1.6GHz N270 CPU with a 945GSE chipset, GMA 950 integrated graphics, 1GB of DDR2 memory, a 160GB HDD, an 8x SuperMulti DVD burner, WiFi, 5 USB 2.0 ports, built-in speakers, a multicard reader, and a bundled keyboard and mouse. This PC runs Windows XP and costs $400 USD - it's basically a netbook in a PC box. You can check it out on eMachines official website here.

[Engadget]

The Nokia E55 - seen long time ago - has just surpassed the FCC. The release date is still not mentioned, but it should hit Europe sometime this Summer for €265 ($371 USD). The E55 has: a 2.4-inch display with a 240 x 320 resolution, a microSD card slot (up to 16GB support), 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 + A2DP, a 3.2MP camera with an LED flash, an ARM 11 600MHz CPU, FM radio with RDS, and aGPS. It is extremely compact at just 9.9mm thick and runs S60, of course.

[Boy Genius, GSM Arena]

Sony UK has just announced that they are going to launch two new Walkman PMPs, the Sony E440 and the B140. Both of these PMPs have an FM radio, a voice recorder, and are able to record music from the radio. Similarities aside, let's set them apart.

First up is the Sony E440. This PMP has a 2-inch QVGA display, Clear Audio technology, and is kept tight in a 9.3mm thick chassis. This PMP is capable of playing 30 hours of music / 6 hours of video and recharges to 80-percent in just 45 minutes. This will be available in 4 /8 / 16GB capacities and is a direct competitor for the iPod Nano.

Next up is the Sony B140 PMP. It has: a slim USB key form-factor - similar to this. It also has a small monochrome display, five switchable equalizer modes, bass boost, music-synchronized LEDs, and Sony's ZAPPIN mode "which plays a few seconds of each track from within, not at the start of, each song." This PMP is capable of playing 18 hours of music and a 3 minute charge is good enough for 90 minutes of music. This will be available in 2 / 4GB capacities and seems like a direct competitor for the iPod Shuffle.

Both of these PMPs haven't been priced yet, but they should hit UK shelves by the end of this month.

[Slash Gear]

Asus have just announced their latest LCD TV / monitor hybrid displays, dubbing it the TV Monitor T1 Series. They introduced the 21.5 (22T1E), 23.6 (24T1E), and 27-inch (27T1E) models this morning. All three of these displays are fairly similar, they all have: a Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) resolution, 16.7M colours, a 20,000:1 contrast ratio, 300 nits of brightness, a horizontal 170-degree / vertical 160-degree viewing angle, a 5ms response time, and digital (DVB-T) and analog (PAL/SECAM) TV reception. For the full spec sheet, you can check out the chart below. Below the chart there's the official press release from Asus, so you can check that out if you're interested. This was all courtesy of Slash Gear.





[Slash Gear]

Starting on July 27th, you will be able to submit apps for the future Windows Marketplace. One part of Windows Marketplace will be called "Business Center" so guess who's targeted there. The good news is that unlike earlier reports, Windows Marketplace will be available to WinMo 6.0 and 6.1 users as well as future WinMo 6.5 users, which will be very good for the company and the consumers. WinMo 6.5 should be available this Fall, so Windows Marketplace should be available at around the same time.

[Engadget]

Ever wanted a real secondary display for your netbook? Well, thanks to the telescoping mount on Samsung's new SyncMaster 80 Series, you can place one over your netbook - instead of at the side. Two LCD displays are going to be available later this month, a 20 (F2080) and a 23-inch (F2380) model. Both of these displays will have an underwhelming 3,000:1 contrast ratio, a 178-degree viewing angle, a 15mm bezel, and they almost cover 100% of the "RGB color space."

If you take a look at the picture below, you can see that the display can also be rotated vertically if you like. The F2080 and F2380 displays will be available later this month in Korea for 378,000 won ($287 USD) and 457,000 won ($347 USD), respectively.

[Engadget]

Here's a leaked picture of what could be the Samsung YP-M1, it'll be part of Samsung's Yepp series. Nothing much is known about this device at all. The rumoured specs are: a 3.3-inch touchscreen display, a built-in microphone, and flash support. Everything about this PMP is still rumoured - even the YP-M1 name. This whole world is a rumour. Okay, carry along.

[Engadget]

Take a look at this shot of Verizon's inventory system. What do you see? I see a dummy model of the BlackBerry Storm 2 that's about to hit Verizon shelves soon. Looks like we'll have to wait a little bit longer to get our hands on a real-working BlackBerry 9550 Storm 2.

[Engadget]

That's right! Rock has just released two new gaming laptops, the Xtreme 790 and the Xtreme 840. Both of these notebooks have: Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M 1GB graphics, a Blu-ray drive, up to 6GB of DDR3 RAM, up to 1.5TB of storage courtesy of three 500GB HDDs (with RAID support), four USB 2.0 ports, WiFi a/b/g/n, a 7-in-1 card reader, a 3-year warranty, and run on Windows 7 Home Premium - with a free Windows 7 upgrade when it gets released. They both also have customizeable lighting, touch-sensitive buttons, and eight gaming buttons "which can be user-set to in-game controls." Now let's set aside the differences.

The Xtreme 790 is the smaller of the two and has: a 17-inch full HD display, and your choice of Intel Core i7 CPUs. This is expected to start at £1,999 ($3,259 USD).

The Xtreme 840 has: an 18.4-inch Full HD display, your choice of Core 2 Duo / Core 2 Quad CPUs, and has support for up to 2 GTX 280M GPUs. There are going to be two versions of the Rock Xtreme 840 notebook, one with single and one with dual graphics. The single and dual GPU Rock Xtreme 840s will cost £1,699 ($2,770 USD) and £2,299 ($3,748 USD), respectively.

All three of these notebooks will "begin shipping at the end of this month."

[Slash Gear]

There's nothing entirely new about this Cowon S9 PMP, except for the colour. Cowon has just pushed out a new white colour to their 3.3-inch AMOLED packing S9 PMP. It's now available on Cowon's official website, so check it out here.

[Engadget]

We know of two Android-based Motorola handsets, the Calgary and the Morrison; this time, I'll talk about the Morrison. Early reports said that the Morrison would be T-Mobile's last Android device of the year, but that might not be the case, since Phone Arena's listing of the Motorola Morrison is "upcoming" on T-Mobile. It's up to you who to believe, but I think I'd rather believe the earlier reports, since leaked roadmaps are pretty accurate. T-Mobile could've pushed up the release date though - if we're lucky.

Like the Calgary from this morning, Phone Arena somehow got their hands on some of the specs of the Motorola Morrison. Some of the specs include: quad-band GSM, a touchscreen display with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a microSD card slot, and Bluetooth. A good thing about this handset is that it's running Android. Unfortunately, this handset doesn't look like it will have 3G or WiFi support - maybe that's why T-Mobile could push the release date up. You never know.

[Phone Arena]

Yesterday the interwebs went crazy when a Windows 7 Build 7600 leaked to torrents. Many suggested that it was the RTM, but, well, it's not. Microsoft has come out and announced that the RTM is not ready yet, but it will be soon. Microsoft's Windows Communications Manager, Brandon LeBlanc, wrote a blog post that stated, "we expect Windows 7 to RTM in the 2nd half of July." So, basically, anything after tomorrow has RTM potential.

Once Windows 7 is complete, there are a few ways you can get your hands on a copy, depending on which category you fall into. MSDN and TechNet subscribers will be able to download the final version of Windows 7 a few weeks after Microsoft announces RTM, Volume License (VL) customers can get a copy starting September 1st, and everyone else will have to either wait until October 22nd, or trust that the inevitable torrent downloads are legit.

[Maximum PC]

I'm not a fan of the Nintendo Wii at all, but I must admit that this black model makes the Wii one of the best-looking consoles to ever be released. The colour change is not going to suck me in though, but it sure is awfully nice to look at. I love the new black colour, it's just so sexy. Unfortunately, it's still not for the hardcore - and it's only launching in Japan.

[Kotaku]

Bell was first out of the gate, launching the BlackBerry Tour this past weekend. The good news is that Telus has just launched the BlackBerry Tour as well, so us Canadians now have two carrier options. The sad part is that Telus won't have the BlackBerry Tour in stock until Wednesday. I don't know what kind of launch [flop] that is, but you'll just have to wait until tomorrow for your Tour. July 15th is when we were expecting the Tour to drop anyway, so this shouldn't shock some people.

For existing customers of Telus, the BlackBerry Tour costs $299.99 CAD ($262 USD) on a 3-year contract, $499.99 CAD ($437 USD) on a 2-year contract, $549.99 CAD ($480 USD) on a 1-year contract, and $599.99 CAD ($524 USD) with no contract. But, new customers can pick up the Tour for just $229.99 CAD ($201 USD) on a 3-year contract. Who are you going to choose, Bell or Telus?

On a side note, don't forget that the HTC Snap will also be available tomorrow - if the release date still stands.

[CrackBerry]

According to the Bluetooth SIG account, the Samsung B7620 will be the Giogio Armani 2. The good news is that it should also rock an 800MHz CPU. The better news is that the specs so far crush the original Armani handset. Some of the specs include: an 800MHz CPU, WiFi, aGPS, FM radio with RDS, "Work & Life" mode, Office Mobile, and a business card scanner. The 800MHz CPU is probably similar to the Samsung Jet's and we can guesstimate that this handset will also have a touchscreen.

Update: According to Engadget, this handset will run on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional.

[Boy Genius]

According to Phone Arena, the Motorola Calgary, one of Motorola's Android handsets, is scheduled for a Q4 2009 launch with Verizon. They've also got their hands on some of the specs somehow. The Calgary has: CDMA dual-band, 3G, a touchscreen display, a microSD card slot, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, GPS, Blueooth, and sadly no WiFi. This handset is of course running Android, but we don't know much else about this device. We'll just have to see what pops up in the future.

[Phone Arena]

As of right now, Nokia's AMOLED displays are produced by TPO and Samsung Mobile. Apparently though, in the future their supplier could be LG. "LG Display has been in talks with the handset giant Nokia to supply it with next-generation AM OLED touch-screens, with the latter more optimistic about OLED applications on the global mobile phone market."

Nokia first used OLED displays in their 8MP Nokia N86 handset, which launched a couple of weeks ago.
These AMOLED displays from LG are still far away. According to the reports, there are some issues and shipping to Nokia "will materialize in a year." So, just look out for them next year.

[Korea Times]