(Credit:
Samsung Mobile)
If you're planning to do a lot of flying next week for Thanksgiving, you may be in luck. Well, depending on where you're actually traveling that is. Last August Samsung Mobile announced the availability of 50 free charging stations at Newark Liberty International Airport. On Thursday, the company announced that they will be adding 115 new stations to that number.
Samsung Mobile says that it is opening new free stations at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Miami International Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport.
With the new additions Samsung claims that is has installed charging stations in 10 of the nation's busiest airports in the U.S.
The more stations, the better, especially if they're in more general areas where I can sit back and watch from the comfort of my own seat and not have to stand there guarding it the whole time.
Samsung Mobile on Monday announced that it had installed 50 free charging stations at Newark Liberty International Airport in Terminals A, B, and C.
The shelf is a bit narrow, IMO.
(Credit: Samsung)Each charging station includes four outlets that allow several normal travelers or a huge geek of one to recharge their electronic devices simultaneously. The stations are built to charge devices designed for U.S. voltage--120 volts--and come with a small shelf to hold the gear. Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) of New Jersey is providing electricity for all 50 charging stations at the airport.
Samsung Mobile has already recently installed free charging stations in several U.S. airports including 54 at JFK, 51 at LAX, 12 in LaGuardia, 18 in Orlando, and 22 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Sounds great, but I doubt I'd ever use this. I mean, do they really think I'm gonna leave my phone or laptop alone at some charging station at the airport? Don't airports try to curb leaving your stuff unattended anyway? Sure you could just stand there, waiting for whatever you're charging to finish, but if you do remember to keep your knees bent so when you pass out you don't do that much damage.
Also, from the looks of it, the shelf could use more space. How do they expect me to charge my 17-inch laptop on that thing? I guess I'll be copping a squat under the station if I want to be able to watch movies on long flights.
Sony Ericsson Xperia X1
(Credit: Crave Asia)Phone madness continues on in Barcelona, Spain, as the second day of GSMA Mobile World Congress comes to a close. Vodafone's CEO said he sees the mobile web as the future, Microsoft announced MSN Direct availability on Windows Mobile devices, and Yahoo launches OneConnect, a new tool that lets mobile phone users to aggregate their social-networking updates and messaging in one spot on their phones. T-Mobile also finally announces plans to launch 3G in the U.S. by summer 2008. There's also hope for an Android phone, as well as an Austrian version of the iPhone by the end of the year on T-Mobile. Nokia knocks out another announcement about Nokia Maps 2.0, a much improved maps application for its smart phones.
HTC P3470
(Credit: HTC)But let's move on to what you really want to know about--all the new and shiny gadgets. We take a closer look at the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, the first Windows Mobile smart phone by Sony Ericsson. It's tricked out with a huge 3-inch screen, an arc sliding QWERTY keyboard, HSDPA/HSUPA, a 3.2-megapixel camera, GPS, and Wi-Fi. HTC, a well-known Taiwanese manufacturer of smart phones, also announced a couple of new devices. The first is the HTC P3470 (we highly suggest a nicer name), a Windows Mobile 6 smartphone that comes with built-in GPS and TomTom Navigator 6 software, plus a 2.8-inch touchscreen, and a 2-megapixel camera. HTC also announced a revamped HTC Advantage with TouchFlo software (a la the HTC Touch) and hints at a new version of Windows Mobile.
LG KF700
(Credit: LG)LG also announced a few new phones. One of them is a Symbian-powered smartphone dubbed the KT610, which has a 2.4-inch screen, a QWERTY keyboard, and HSDPA. Then LG introduced yet another touchscreen wonder, the LG KF600, which is essentially the GSM version of the LG Venus. Bonnia Cha took a closer look at the LG KF700, and marveled at its beautiful touchscreen, as well as its slider keypad. The KF700 has a music and video player, a 3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and 90MB of internal memory, and a microSD expansion slot.
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Samsung SGH-F490
(Credit: Samsung)Samsung made the biggest splash today though, with a huge array of new phones. We already mentioned the Samsung Soul on Day 1, and on Day 2, Samsung showed us the F400, the F480 and the F490. The F400 is a phone with a definite multimedia focus, complete with a music player, stereo speakers, an amplifier with Bang & Olufsen technology, and a 3-megapixel camera. Both the F480 and the F490 look a lot like a certain phone from Apple. The F490 has a large 3.2-inch touch-screen display, a 5-megapixel camera, Google Search, plus a 3.5mm headset jack that isn't recessed. The F480 on the other hand, has a 2.8-inch touch-screen display, a 5-megapixel camera, FM radio, and e-mail.
Taking a departure from the touch-screen phones for a bit, Samsung also announced the G810, a slider phone running on the Symbian S60 operating system that has a 5-megapixel camera, TV out, GPS, and Wi-Fi. The P960 is a little on the lower end, with a 3-megapixel camera, an FM radio, and Bluetooth.
To round up the day's coverage, we took a look at a funky looking Sony Ericsson Bluetooth speaker, plus a closer look at prototype phones running the Google Android operating system.
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