There’s something about having a wrist watch that works as a communications device that just makes sense to me. I didn’t grow up knowing about Dick Tracy, so I think it’s more about the convenience factor than nostalgia. You can leave a phone in another room, but if you’re wearing the phone on your wrist, it’s going to always be there when you need it.

LG is bringing a watch phone to the UK in August through Orange with an unknown, but predicted price of around £1,000. According to T3, The Gadget Website, the LG watch phone isn’t expected to by subsidized by Orange.

We’ve seen watch phones before, but this one stands out because it has video calling over Orange’s HSDPA network. It also has Bluetooth and a touch screen.

9to5mac.com found a nice little pricey prize at Buy.com. They’re selling an unlocked 3G 16GB iPhone with a full Apple Warranty for $799.99. It can be used with any GSM carrier in the world, and since the phone isn’t jailbroken, it can be updated via iTunes.

If you’ve been waiting for an unlocked, blessed-by-Cupertino iPhone here is the link to get one.

9to5mac.com speculates that Apple is clearing inventory to prep for the next generation iPhone.

Surprise, surprise! Apple just introduced a new iPod Shuffle and it’s “significantly smaller than a AA battery.” All the controls are on the earphone cable and it has a “VoiceOver” feature that will speak song titles, artists and playlist names at the press of a button. The speech feature will also tell you the status of the battery.

The new Shuffle speaks 14 languages including English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

It comes in silver or black with 4GB storage and will sell for $79.

(Click the image to see a larger photo)

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mar. 4, 2009– Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today introduced “Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch,” a new application available for free from Apple’s App Store that lets customers enjoy over 240,000 books, including 104 of 112 New York Times Bestsellers, on the iPhone and iPod touch using Apple’s Multi-Touch user interface. Amazon’s new Whispersync technology saves and synchronizes a customer’s bookmark across their original Kindle, Kindle 2, iPhone and iPod touch, so customers always have their reading with them and never lose their place. Kindle customers can read a few pages on their iPhone or iPod touch and pick up right where they left off on their Kindle or Kindle 2.

The Kindle application for iPhone and iPod touch lets customers bring their Kindle books with them wherever they go and takes full advantage of Apple’s Multi-Touch user interface. With the new Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch application, customers can:
* Shop for hundreds of thousands of books on their Kindle or online at http://www.amazon.com/kindlestore, and wirelessly transfer the books to their iPhone or iPod touch

* Access their entire library of previously purchased Kindle books stored on Amazon’s servers
* Adjust the text size of books
* Add bookmarks and view notes and highlights

Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch is available for free from Apple’s App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore.

via Amazon Press Release

I was surprised to find when I tweeted that the Apple Store is down this morning that quite a few people didn’t know that what happens when Apple adds new products. The Apple Store is back up and here’s what’s new:

A new 24″ iMac has twice the memory and twice the storage for $1500.

A Nehalem based Mac Pro with both dual-link DVI ports and Mini DisplayPorts on every graphics card.

…and the Mac Mini that we saw in leaked photo and video. It has an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, Intel Core 2 Duo, speeds starting at 2.0GHz, and all those USB ports on the back.

We’ll dig a little deeper and have more details on today’s episode of GeekBrief.TV.

UPDATE: I’m trying to verify the information I received on the i7 processor.
UPDATE 2: We were wrong about the i7 processor on the iMac. That was from Engadget. They’ve corrected it as well. I’ve updated to reflect new features above.

All day long Neal’s been saying, “Kindle is coming tomorrow.” I keep telling him, “No, Honey. It’s coming Wednesday.” His argument made some sense. It shipped today. UPS had picked it up. We paid for overnight shipping. We should get it in the morning.

He was right! Amazon just issued a press release announcing that shipments would begin arriving tomorrow. I’ll unbox it and share my first thoughts as soon as possible.

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Samsung Omnia HD is getting attention because of it’s 3.7 inch, 16 million color AMOLED display and the fact that it shoots 720p video. The still camera shoots 8MP images.

Other specs are what you’d expect. Memory is 8GB or 16GB interal plus up to 32GB on MicroSDHC cards. Screen resolution is 640X360. It has GPS, an accelerometer, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and a DLNA connector for HDTV output. It also supports a crazy, great range of video and audio file codecs. Not the open source codecs, though.

Flashlights are necessities, but I’ve always hated the circle within a circle illumination pattern that’s typical of pretty much every flashlight I’ve ever experienced. The Bushnell HD Torch Flashlight doesn’t have that and it makes me want one. Instead of the circle in a circle, it projects a perfect square beam of light that’s consistent from edge to edge. It’s powered by a couple CR123 batteries that last for up to 1.5 hours delivering a 165 lumen beam.

As far as I can tell, the only way to get one is to pre-order from B&H.

via Uncrate

According to the GSM Association, it looks like we’re on our way to a life with less clutter from mobile phone chargers. For the most part, each phone manufacturer has a different charger they want you to use, and one manufacturer will often release different phones with completely different chargers. I have several iPhone chargers, Nokia chargers, and I think I still have a Razr charger lying around somewhere.

Some mobile phone manufacturers in the UK (3 Group, AT&T, KTF, LG, mobilkom austria, Motorola, Nokia, Orange, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor, Telstra, T-Mobile and Vodafone) have agreed to use Micro-USB on all phones shipping by 2012.

I would be be surprised, though, if Apple joins in on the fun.

I don’t think so.

MacRumors has received some photos of a potential new iPhone. It has a black matte back. It looks to be made of metal, but Apple chose to move away from metal because of reception issues. The main reason I’m calling fake is that the camera doesn’t look real to me.

What do you think?

Read the Geek Brief Shownotes for this episode and/or Download it for Posterity.

Right out of the gate, I have to admit I have a weak spot in my heart for Klipsch speakers. We’ve all heard stories about great tech companies that were started in a garage in Silicon Valley. Klipsch speakers were first created in a tin shed in Hope, Arkansas. That isn’t far from where I grew up. My hometown church has the beautiful wooden Klipsch La Scalas hanging on each side of the stage that have hung there all my life. I remember staring at them when services got a little boring because they were so interestingly designed. Chances are pretty decent that a movie theater in your community is using Klipsch speakers. Heck, the Website even has a Theater Locator page where you can enter your zip and get a list of cinemas in your area that use Klipsch speakers.


I said all that basically to illustrate my weakness for the brand. Klipsch is right up there with Apple for me so when I got a press release today about three new sets of home theater speakers that deliver Kipsch sound at affordable price points, I went straight to the Web site to find out more.


There are three sets. The HD Theatre 500 has an MSRP of $399.99. The HD Theater 500 has a MSRP of $599.99, and the HD Theater 1000 has an MSRP of $899.99. They’re each designed for 5.1 surround systems, and the big distinction in in the size and power of the subwoofer. The 300 has a 6-incher. The 500 has an 8-incher and the 1000 has a 10-incher.


The new line uses Klipsch horn-loaded technology to produce more output from less energy.

Read the Geek Brief Shownotes for this episode and/or Download it for Posterity.

Read the Geek Brief Shownotes for this episode and/or Download it for Posterity.

When Apple stopped selling it’s popular stand alone iSight Webcam, it wasn’t horrible since MacBooks and iMacs have built-in iSight cameras. ecamm network came along, though and offered an iSight alternative that Mac Pro and Mac Mini users could add to their iSightless Cinema Displays. At Macworld 2009, examm network introduced a new alternative that some Mac users might want in addition to iSight. It’s a Bluetooth webcam called the BT-1 and it streams H.264 video and AAC audio wirelessly to a Mac. It’s small, you can hold it in your hand or you can position it in a way that might be more flattering than the shot you get from a built-in camera. It has a standard tripod mount so it’s ideal for attaching to something like a Gorillapod.

Video resolution is 640×480. Talk time is four hours and the wireless range, like with almost everything Bluetooth, is between 10 and 30 feet. It’s compatible with iChat, Skype and a long, long list of other video apps.

via Oh Gizmo