smart

As some of you phone fanatics may know, the 3GSM World Congress is coming up soon in Barcelona, Spain (unfortunately, Crave won't be there in person sipping on Spanish wine along Las Ramblas, err, I mean, to cover the event). The annual conference brings together the cell phone industry to discuss and showcase the latest 3G technologies and developments, and in recent years, it has also served as backdrop to some pretty cool product announcements. Now, based on some blogosphere rumblings, it looks like this year won't be any different. According to Engadget Mobile, Motorola is prepping to … Read more

The age of the digital kitchen has arrived. Not only are "smart" appliances finally making their way into homes (and not just Tomorrowland exhibits at Disneyland), but they're multitasking as well.

Take, for example, the "Intelligent Oven" by TMIO: It can refrigerate and cook in the same space, which can be controlled over the Internet or cell phone. And lest you think all this is some cheap parlor trick, Gizmodo says the uber-oven employs "NASA-based command and control engineering," as well as "green" technologies developed by the space agency. If you'… Read more

Recently, we rounded up some of the most overhyped cell phones to date, and we don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that the Apple iPhone might be headed that way. Yet amidst all the serious debate about whether the iPhone is a rip-off or a force to be reckoned with, there's still a little fun to had. BBSpot has a humorous little spoof of a showdown between the iPhone and the Palm Treo, noting upfront that "We haven't had our hands on either device, but that hasn't stopped us from … Read more

Palm released a software update for the Treo 680 Thursday to fix a problem in which the embedded camera drains the smart phone's battery.

"Palm has identified that the Treo 680 device can experience reduced battery life when the camera is used. The camera may continue to draw power from the battery when the device is in standby mode," a posting on the Palm Web site said. All Treo 680 users should install the Camera Update, the company said. Find the update here.

Treo users had been complaining on user forums that the handset's battery was … Read more

I've never gotten along with the SureType keyboards on some of RIM's BlackBerry devices. You input a couple of letters, get a list of possible words, scroll over to the correct one, then select it--yeah, no thanks. I know it gets easier to use over time, but it really shouldn't be so much work. It's a shame, too, because they're found on some of the company's best smart phones, including the sexy BlackBerry Pearl. I really like the design and functionality of the Pearl, but much prefer to have a full QWERTY keyboard. What'… Read more

Forgive the horrible pun in the headline (five days in Vegas will do that to you), but corniness aside, the important news is that T-Mobile and Research in Motion have just released a white version of the BlackBerry Pearl and it's now available for purchase online and in retail stores.

The new pearl-white color is part of T-Mobile's and RIM's strategy to appeal to general consumers and the younger crowd, providing them with a full-featured smart phone in a sleek and stylish package. The BlackBerry Pearl White's feature set is identical to the original Pearl's.… Read more

As fellow Webwarer Josh Lowensohn reported a couple of days ago, Nokia and Vox have teamed up to bring mobile blogging to a new level. The N93i comes preloaded with the blogging service, so you can use the phone's 3.2-megapixel camera to capture photos and video and instantly upload them to Vox to share with all your friends and family. It's a wonderful idea, but if you're anything like me, you're not going to bother if the process is too labor intensive or kludgey. Well, good news, folks: Nokia gave me a working demo of … Read more

In addition to the I-mate Jaq3 announcement today, I-mate also introduced the I-mate PDAL. Sans QWERTY keyboard and sporting a trimmer package (4.4x2.2x0.6 inches; 4.1 ounces) than the Jaq3, it's a quad-band smart phone running Windows Mobile 5, and it doesn't include anything revolutionary, but it has all the necessities for a mobile professional. It features a 2.4-inch, 65,000-color touch screen; integrated Wi-Fi (802.11b/g); Bluetooth; and a 2-megapixel camera. Like the Jaq3, it'll be available unlocked at the end of January, but no pricing information has been set.

Continuing the tragic saga of cool smart phones that we can't get here in the United States, we have the Nokia N95. As you may or may not recall, the N95 is the flagship model of the company's N series of multimedia computers. It has a 5-megapixel camera, integrated GPS, Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), HSPDA, 150MB of internal memory, and a Micro SD slot. The design allows you to switch between different modes; you can slide the dial pad down to make calls or slide the dedicated media keys out in the opposite direction, automatically converting the 2.… Read more