Casio G'zOne Rock
(Credit: Verizon Wireless)After seeing the Casio G'zOne Brigade at the Verizon Wireless event a few weeks ago, we had thought that would be the only G'zOne product we would see for a while. It turns out Casio and Verizon have been working on yet another rugged phone, and it's the Casio G'zOne Rock, which looks a lot like a successor to the G'zOne Boulder.
Along with an exterior that is MIL-STD-180F certified to withstand the elements (water, shock, dust, humidity, salt fog, solar radiation, altitude, high and low temperatures), the G'zOne Rock is even more of an outdoorsman tool than its predecessors. It now has G'zGear software that operates in six modes: Earth Compass, Walking Counter, Thermometer, Astro Calendar (provides the moon's age and days until a full/new moon), Sunrise Sunset (shows the current time and position of the sun, and times for sunrises and sunsets), and Tides (shows the tidal graph and time of tides, plus the best time for fishing).
Other features include Push to Talk, EV-DO Rev. A, a 2-megapixel camera/camcorder with flash, microSD card storage up to 16GB, support for V Cast videos and V Cast Music with Rhapsody, and stereo Bluetooth. The sub-display on the phone has touch controls for the music player.
The Casio G'zOne Rock will be available in matte black for $199.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a two-year service agreement. You can buy it online starting November 20, or you can buy it in Verizon stores starting November 30.
LG Shine II
(Credit: LG)LG and AT&T announced Monday a successor to its LG Shine slider handset, the LG Shine II. It's just as glossy and reflective as its predecessor, complete with a 2.2-inch mirror LCD. Features include a music player with a customizable equalizer, stereo Bluetooth, the typical messaging features, GPS, and a 2.0-megapixel camera. The Shine II will be available starting November 22 for $119.99 after a mail-in rebate and a two-year agreement.
A leaked screenshot of the HTC Passion?
(Credit: Boy Genius Report)We've seen the Motorola Droid and the HTC Droid Eris from Verizon Wireless so far, but apparently there is a third Verizon Android handset waiting in the wings, if rumors are to be believed.
Rumors are that it will be the HTC Passion, which is supposedly powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon chipset (the Passion might also be called the Dragon). The rumor mill (from Boy Genius, Phone Arena, and elsewhere) claims that the HTC Passion will feature a 5-megapixel camera, a large WVGA-resolution screen with multitouch, a 3.5mm headset jack, 256MB RAM, and it's said to run Android 2.0 with the HTC Sense overlay.
We have heard nothing about this through official channels, so this is strictly rumor territory here, but we can't help but be intrigued by this mythical phone. The Android 2.0 with multitouch and the Snapdragon processor certainly puts it just a notch above the Droid. Perhaps that's why Verizon is keeping mum about the device for now. Still, the rumor mill claims we'll see an announcement about the Passion/Dragon in mid-December, so we'll definitely keep an eye for that.
We have special guest Damian Koh from CNET Asia joining us on today's show. He answers our questions about the cell phone market in Asia, and surprisingly, he tells us he actually envies us for the phones that are available only in the U.S. We also discuss the Motorola Droid, Verizon's AT&T-bashing ads, Samsung's Bada, and more.
Listen now: Download today's podcastSubscribe now: iTunes (audio) | iTunes (video) | RSS (audio) | RSS (video)
News
Initial Motorola Droid sales look good
New Verizon ad calls iPhone 'misfit toy
Verizon reveals Casio G'zOne Brigade
T-Mobile to phase out MyFaves
Samsung launching its own mobile OS
Reviews and features
HTC Droid Eris
Nokia 3711
Samsung Flight
LG Chocolate Touch VX8575
Twitter Peek
RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700
Motorola Droid vs. iPhone 3GS prizefight
Upcoming reviews
Samsung Convoy
T-Mobile Tap
Samsung Mythic
Jabra Stone
Motorola Quantico
(Credit: Motorola)Motorola has released yet another rugged phone, and it's called the Quantico.
Like the Motorola Tundra, it won't win any design awards for its rough-and-tumble exterior. It's encased in a shell made of chrome, glass, and rubber that is military-certified to withstand a 30-minute dip in up to a meter of water, extreme pressure, temperature, dust, shock, vibration, and rain.
It also rocks GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, a speakerphone, and a 1.3-megapixel camera. No word on carriers just yet, but the tri-band CDMA spec gives us a pretty good hint it'll either go with Verizon, Sprint, or one of the regional carriers like Cricket and MetroPCS.
This is the 411, my Q&A column answering all your questions about cell phones and cell phone accessories. I receive plenty of questions about these subjects via e-mail, so I figured many of you might have the same questions, too. At times, I might solicit answers from readers if I'm stumped. Send your questions and comments to me at nicole.lee@cnet.com. If you prefer to remain anonymous, let me know in the e-mail.
First off, thanks for your recent piece comparing the smartphone voice and data plans. Very helpful! My question pertains to smartphone flash drives. Most of the current smartphones allow the user to add storage via a flash drive, usually a microSD or SD card. When I read the review about the smartphones, I often see some kind of statement regarding flash memory that seems to indicate that their is a maximum amount of storage that a device will accept.
For example, the review of the HTC Tilt 2 says, "The Tilt2 has up to 32GB of expandable memory while offering 512MB ROM/288MB RAM." So my question is: is the maximum amount of flash drive space that a device will accept limited by the device itself (e.g., hardware/software limitations) or is it limited by the amount of flash card storage that is currently available in the market (referring back to the Tilt2, the device will accept a 64GB card when it becomes available)? -- John, via e-mail
HTC TouchPro2
(Credit: Verizon Wireless)As far as I know, the expandable memory limit is indeed limited by the device itself. So even if a 64 or 128GB card becomes available, you will not be able to use those cards in the phone. Perhaps the firmware of the phone might be upgraded to handle the new cards, but I'm not sure if that is possible.
Nicole, I'm a 56-year-old with big hands and bad eyes, so a lot of this smartphone technology is wasted on me. My office wants me to get a HTC Touch Pro2 (bigger screen and keyboard), but I'd prefer to use my Verizon cell phone as a Wi-Fi device to access my company's Web site and my e-mail account through the Web through my laptop. What would you recommend for me? -- Paul, via e-mail
... Read more
LG Chocolate Touch VX8575 in hand
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)Perhaps the biggest letdown of the LG Chocolate Touch VX8575 from Verizon Wireless is that it's not the LG Chocolate BL40. After getting teased for months by the sexy shots of the LG BL40, we thought there might be a chance we would see it stateside. Alas, the LG Chocolate Touch VX8575 looks nothing like its European cousin. In fact, the touch-screen interface reminds us a lot of previous LG touch screen handsets, like the LG enV Touch for example. The geometric shapes on the back of the phone and the bloblike buttons underneath the display are about the only things that are unique about the phone's design.
Still, that doesn't mean the Touch VX8575 is a terrible phone. Continuing the Chocolate tradition of strong music features, the Chocolate Touch VX8575 has a great music player with Dolby Music equalizer settings (both manual and preset modes), an FM radio, and an integrated song ID feature. There's also a really fun "Join the Band" feature that gives you either a virtual drum kit or a scrolling 88-key keyboard to play along with your tunes. The drum kit even has a cowbell, which we found amusing.
That, and it has a nice 3.2-megapixel camera, EV-DO Rev. 0, V Cast video access, stereo Bluetooth, and a 3.5mm headset jack. We weren't big fans of the full HTML browser--you have to keep going back to a URL-entry page to enter URLs, for example--but it's otherwise a decent touch-screen music phone from Verizon Wireless. The LG Chocolate Touch VX8575 is $79.99 with a two-year service agreement with Verizon Wireless.
(Credit:
MobileBurn)
Aside from the bevy of new Verizon phones announced Thursday morning, the latest Casio G'zOne was also shown off at the 2009 Verizon holiday event in New York.
The Casio G'zOne Brigade is the latest in Casio's line of rugged handsets, and this one comes with a full QWERTY keyboard, so it also makes the grade as the company's first rugged messaging phone. Like all the other Casio G'zOne handsets, the Brigade is MIL-STD-810F-certified to withstand the elements--water, dust, shock, vibration, and more.
It also features a 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus, a document viewer for Microsoft Office files, a text-to-speech feature, a speakerphone, EV-DO, and Verizon's suite of services that includes VZ Navigator, V Cast Video, and V Cast Music with Rhapsody. No word on pricing or availability just yet, but we'll keep you posted.
LG Chocolate Touch
(Credit: Verizon Wireless)We've been waiting for months for Verizon to finally unveil the latest in the line of LG Chocolate phones, and it's here at last. The LG Chocolate Touch VX8575 is officially available today, making it the first touch-screen version of the Chocolate phone lineup. As we suspected, it's very different from the LG BL40 and looks a lot more like the other LG touch-screen handsets we've seen, like the LG Dare for example.
The Chocolate Touch continues the Chocolate tradition of music-specialized phones, with music features like the Dolby Mobile equalizer, an FM radio, integrated song ID, stereo Bluetooth, and even a unique "Join the Band" feature that lets you play around with a full drum kit and a scrolling 88-key keyboard. Other features include quick access to social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, EV-DO Rev. 0, a full HTML browser, and a 3.2-megapixel camera with settings like intelligent shot (for improved quality) and panorama shot (for three guided sequential shots).
The phone is available now for $79.99 with a $50 mail-in rebate and a new two-year agreement. The rebate will be in the form of a debit card.
BlackBerry Curve 8530
(Credit: Verizon Wireless)A new BlackBerry has joined the Verizon Wireless family: the BlackBerry Curve 8530. The 8530 looks a fair bit sleeker than its predecessor, the Curve 8330, thanks to the touch-sensitive track pad and the slanted full QWERTY keyboard. We're also happy to finally see Wi-Fi capability, which was sadly lacking in the previous Curve. It also has 256MB flash memory, a 528MHz next-generation processor, EV-DO, GPS with support for geotagging pictures, a 2.0-megapixel camera and camcorder, a music player with dedicated media keys, a 3.5mm headset jack, BlackBerry's App World application store, and, of course, plenty of e-mail and messaging features. If you're not satisfied with the onboard memory, you also have the option of adding up to 16GB of microSD/SDHC card storage.
The BlackBerry Curve 8530 will be available starting November 20 for $99.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate and a new two-year agreement.
