According to Engadget, T-Mobile announced today that the T-Mobile Shadow, a Windows Mobile smartphone will be available to purchase for $149.99 with a 2 year contract on October 31, 2007. The sleek new phone will come with WIFI, a 2 megapixel camera, a new version of T-mobile's myFaves and all the bells and whistles of Windows Mobile standard edition (Windows Media player, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more...).
Perhaps you can't afford an iPod Touch, or you like Apple products just fine but want to see what else is out there in the portable media player market. One device that should definitely catch your attention is the Archos 605 WiFi Portable Media Player. Besides the standard music and video (on the biggest LCD touchscreen currently available), the 605 has optional plugins that add a fully Flash-capable Opera web browser, the ability to schedule and record shows like a TiVo, and the ability to stream media from your PC directly to your TV with DVD-quality resolution and 5.1-channel surround sound.
If you can deal with a slightly clunky interface, buying the plugins separately, and the need to spend some time getting to know the device before you can get the most out of it, you'll be rewarded with an affordable player that can simply do more than any other device currently on the market.
Author: Amazon Current
With a FM Tuner, 80 gigabytes of storage space, and the ability the share music, pictures and I assume videos with other Zune users makes the Zune 2 a great holiday gift for $249 US.
This ain't the Kool-Aid talking
I needed something to amuse me. I'm on my way to a funeral and anything to keep my mind off the tragedy and sadness will be welcome. I pull out my Zune and flip through some of my music looking to make a quick list. Just out of curiosity I click on the Community menu to see if I'm the only one in the world that has bought a Zune. I get the circular moving dots that tell me that its searching for other Zune devices and lo and behold "Chito" shows up. Wow--I'm amazed. Someone else in the Seattle airport has a Zune and they're nearby. I look around to see if I see anyone listening to music. I see a young man sitting a few seats down from me listening to his music. I thought to myself, "Let's see if this thing works." I browse through my gallery and find some cool (for me) backgrounds and click "send to Chito". I wait. I watch. I see him look around to see if there is anyone he knows around. Not seeing that its me, he accepts the files I send him. I can see that he's listening to some music by a group that I don't recognize, but I make the assumption that it's probably Hip-Hop or Rap. So I browse my Rap genre and send him one the songs in my Rap category (1 of 3). He reciprocates with sending me an old school R&B song. Nice. I already have it, but that was cool.
This exchange goes on for about an hour and it occurs to me that this is the killer feature of the Zune. This is the reason why people would buy it. Here we were; a teenager and an old guy sending each other stuff via Zune. We didn't know each other from the man in the moon. We probably won't ever see each other again, but I will remember this exchange and it cheered me up. For an hour, I forgot about death and sadness. For an hour, I shared something cool with someone. Random Acts of Kindness via Zune.
Everybody needs a Zune!
For the past few weeks, I've been listening to FM Radio on my Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. On occasion, I normally browse the Internet or watch streaming TV and videos. However, the FM radio feature has allowed me to listen to radio shows and music for better part of the day with little lose in battery power. Of course, my N800 is in offline mode with the device in idle mode (yes, FM radio still plays in offline/idle mode).
This got me thinking of the old hand radio sets or cassette/radio player we used to carry back in the 80's. How has these gadgets changed since then.
In my search, I found the the Mini Digital AM/FM Stereo Pocket Radio.
The new 80GB Zune from Microsoft is sporting some cool new features such as the ability to purchase DRM-free music from the Zune Marketplace, a FM Radio, and the ability to import TV shows or movies recorded using a Windows Vista PC running Windows Media Center. In addition, to syncing the Zune to your Xbox 360 to customize soundtrack in games.
Get yours while supplies last. Preorder the Zune 2 here.
The Boy Genius Report has done it again with preleaked photos of the T-Mobile Shadow, aka HTC Juno. Check out the photo gallery.