Loo-Lee.com

Noah gets the new HTC Touch Cruise, a Windows Mobile smartphone with TouchFlo 3D and turn-by-turn GPS navigation. It even comes with a car mount!

Can You Hold On Honey? I Have to Climb This Mountain Real Quick.

For all you cell phone users out there planning on climbing Mt. Everest, you can breathe a little easier now. Earlier this week Nepal Telecom, Nepal’s largest telecom company, announced that they plan to build a cell phone tower that will provide coverage for up to 3,000 calls at a time. One can only assume that limit will never be reached.

Nepal Telecom has a base of 2.8 million customers, about a tenth of all people from Nepal, and 60% of all cell phone users in the country. The company has installed seven satellite antennas around the mountain, and will be providing coverage as early as June this year. The Nepali company hopes to provide an alternative to those who have rely on satellite telephones when taking the climb.

Let’s hope we never hear about an avalanche caused by a chatty climber.

Gavin Nachbar is a freelance writing cell phone talker who he, himself, never plans on climbing Mt. Everest.

It's ALIVE! The N97 pre-order link on the Nokia USA website, which I reported on in an earlier post, is now active. (Click here to go directly there.) The site features a $699 price tag (contract-free, phone only), along with a freebie promotion for a Nokia Bluetooth headset.



As PhoneDog reader jjbel01 mentioned in a previous comment, the N97 will indeed be available in Europe in June. (Actually, I hear it's landing in Spain first, but chime in if you've heard otherwise.) What does that mean for the prospects of a U.S. release?

Well, the gossip-hounds have been predicting the same timeframe here in the States, which could result in a near simultaneous launch across two continents. I'm skeptical about that, but it would be so sweet if it happens.

June looks like it's going to be quite the juicy month. With so many launch rumors pinned to the same time — including the Pre, iPhone, Curve, Android i7500, and now the N97 — some of them just HAVE to pan out, right?


[via Engadget]


CORRECTION: Props to Voldsom, the eagle-eyed commenter who spotted that the pre-order webpage actually lists an estimated ship date of July 2009. So that answers that. It is indeed arriving — as jjbel01 posited — after the European launch, but still in time for some summer fun.

Since I started posting odd/fun/crazy/entertaining bits on Mondays to start off the week, I've been amazed at all the clever/kooky things people come up with. This is definitely no exception.

This may be the weirdest "news of the weird" type thing yet: A French inventor has created the first kissing cellular device (seriously, you read that right. It's got big pink lips and all).



Georges Koussouros concocted this strange gadget so people can send real smooches remotely. You would have to actually put your lips on the handset, which detects the pressure, percussion speed, temperature and — I am not making this up — "sucking force of the kiss," and then transmits the data to the recipient's handset, which replicates the exact same kiss. Users would be able to repeat them, leave some as a wacky messages and even forward kisses to others.

Oh, those wacky Frenchmen. They do so love the amour.

Koussouros' other, way-less-bizarre inventions include new fertilizer packaging and a self-locking door.

[via TG Daily]

 

I've had a weekend with T-Mobile's new Sidekick LX 2009 now, and while that's not quite enough testing for me to give a full-on review of the device, I can give you some first impressions.  Look for more feature-by-feature SKLX videos and plenty of twitter updates as I continue testing:

1. Overall the device feels slimmer and nicer than previous Sidekicks.  The size and shape reminds me a bit of the AT&T Samsung Impression - it's more like a large messaging phone than a bulky Sidekick, which is a good thing.

2. I'm still a bit worried about the swivel hinge, though - my screen isn't gonna snap off, right?

3. The keyboard is really good, I think.  I'm still adjusting to how it's much harder feeling than other mushier cell phoen keyboards I'm used to.  But I think that's just adjustment.  When I trust the keyboard I notice that my typing is pretty accurate, and the spacing of the keys is great.

4. 3G speeds seem pretty good.  Web browser is quite nice so far - not quite on par with the Operas and Safari Mobiles of the world, but it's making pages look as they should, which is the most important thing.

5, I LOVE the twitter client (I'm down on FB and MySpace right now or else I'd love those, too). The notifications system is pretty good - looks like T-Mo learned and borrowed from the G1's notifications panel in developing the SK's system.

6.  The screen is as gorgeous as advertised.

7.  I mistakenly thought the screen was smaller than G1's screen - I think the relatively large bezel around the screen makes it feel a tiny bit smaller than it really is.

8.  I wish there was a way to manually refresh twitter updates, my mail Inbox, etc.  So far the best I can find for sating my twitter addiction is "Update every 5 minutes."  Won't cut it for me, for better or for worse.

9. Email Inbox limit is too small.  That's a big issue with a flagship messaging device.

10. 3.5mm audio jack: Yay!

11. I don't mind the "childish" Sidekick OS as much as some "adults" do, but I do wish I could use my own images as home screen backgrounds.  Can I?  Anybody know how?  The selection of $2.99 wallpapers offered by T-Mo is leaving me a bit cold.

That's the most likely scenario revealed in an on-the-sly snap of a T-Mo inventory screen. Personally, I like the look and sound of Black vs. White Magic, but a MyTouch, Merlot sounds rather classy - even if, as @androidrights puts it, the possibly-white trackball (as seen on the Black Magic) looks like a deodorant roll-on.


Via TMo News

Trent Reznor, presumably Rob Sheridan, and possibly a few other folks involved in getting the NIN: access app designed, executed, and approved for the Apple App store are none-too-happy right now. Apparently, Apple suddenly realized that the program offers the end-user *access* to content from the Internet - the place we all recognize as a shady, disgusting realm of profanity and the penultimate sign of the end times.

Specifically (we can only guess at the particulars as Apple does not go into great detail), Apple has a problem with the lyrics of a song called The Downward Spiral - which the app makes available via podcast. This is confusing - as Trent explains on the NIN forums - because the individual song and album of the same name are available for purchase through iTunes. Not to mention that the app features forums where registered users are free to type whatever they like - that aspect of the program didn't bother Apple too much during the approval process.

Thankfully, Mr. Reznor has clarified the dilemma for Apple's befuddled gatekeepers by demonstrating what unspeakable blasphemies their own Safari is capable of - on a phone no less. Adults and mature youths who can handle a couple of dirty words and somewhat graphic imagery can survey his evaluation of the situation and enjoy a sensible retort by clicking here.

Honestly, I can see how it would be tough to sort through so many apps for QC purposes - but the contradiction is difficult to ignore. It's good for a laugh, but if it were my App and I had gone through everything Apple requires to achieve approval (let alone what it took to create such high-quality software) I'd be pissed too.

Take this one with a grain of salt as these early Best Buy inventory screens are often wrong, at least when it comes to pricing.  But ...

 

BGR is reporting on some intel they just received regarding a Palm Pre "trial launch" at Best Buy.  The big box retailer will supposedly be getting 4,500 Pres to sell starting June 7th at $199 with a two-year contract for new Sprint customers.  Existing customers will be able to upgrade to Pre for $299, and for a cool grand you'll be able to walk out of BB with a contract-free Pre.  Yup, $999.99 is your (alleged) price for having first WebOS device on the block with no committment weighing you down.

Bear in mind there are a lot of Best Buys across the land, and 4,500 ain't as many phones as you might think.  Each BB outlet will have at least one Pre on hand, which sounds both sketchy and in line with recent omnious reports that Palm is going to release Pre all trickle-stream-like in order to inflate consumer demand.  Blech.  No info on a Sprint launch date, and one more time people, this is just a rumor right now.  Don't go standing in line at Best Buy a month ahead of time just because you read something on the InterWebs, okay?