Unboxing the Apple iPad 2

Yes, the Apple iPad 2 is in the house! It arrived while I was covering CTIA, and was waiting for me at home when I returned…

Apple really nailed it with the iPad 2 – it raises the bar for tablets in general, and leaves the competition in the dust.

I’ve already mentioned this in the context of the Motorola Xoom, and other reviews have reached the same conclusion.

Enjoy my unboxing video :)

Unboxing the Motorola Xoom

Last week I received a Motorola Xoom review unit from the friendly people at Verizon. It’s the first device on the market to run Android 3.0 (aka. Honeycomb), a new version of Google’s mobile OS suited for both phones and tablets. Frankly, it’s been a mixed bag so far – a work in progress – as noted in other reviews…

Unboxing the Motorola CLIQ 2, part 1

I was at CES when the Motorola CLIQ 2 was announced, and the lovely folks at Motorola wasted no time providing me a with review unit.

The CLIQ 2 improves upon the original CLIQ in every way except one: BLUR. It reminds of the Motorola Defy, but with a crappy honeycomb sliding keyboard instead of a military spec waterproof housing…

It shares the same 3.7″ capacitive touchscreen and tri-band 3G radio, but bumps the CPU to 1 GHz and adds support for HSPA+. It borrows the excellent camera from the Droid Pro, and runs Android 2.2.

Expect more coverage soon in the form of some pictures and a camera review. In the meantime, take a look at my unboxing video!

CES recap

Last week I covered CES for Engadget in Las Vegas. It was a lot of hard work with little sleep, but it was also a total blast!

In addition to reporting on several of the new devices announced at the event, I was interviewed by T3ch H3lp (video), and I bumped into some hard-to-find, already released phones.

Take a look at my pictures (slide show) of the Meizu M9, Dell Venue, ZTE Blade/Orange San Francisco, and HTC EVO Shift 4G after the break…

Pictures taken with the Motorola Charm

On paper, the Motorola Charm features the same lackluster 3 megapixel fixed-focus camera as the Motorola Devour.

Based on the abysmal quality of the Devour camera, my expectations were extremely low. Thankfully, the Charm performs a lot better…

Unboxing the Motorola Milestone XT720, part 1

What would happen if you cross-bred the original Droid, the Droid 2, and the Droid X? You’d get the Motorola Milestone XT720.

It takes the 3.7″ screen (854×480 pixels), Cortex A8 processor (bumped up to 720 MHz), and 256 MB RAM from the original Droid. It borrows the blue-ish/silver industrial design from the Droid 2. And it shares the lack of keyboard, 8 MP camera (with mechanical shutter), and HDMI output with the Droid X.

It only runs plain-ish Android 2.1, but it spices things up with a Xenon flash and an unlocked GSM/HSPA radio that supports AWS 3G (1700 MHz band used by T-Mobile USA and Wind Canada).

Intrigued yet? Take a look at my unboxing video. Pictures to follow.

BlackBerry 9800 (Torch) vs. Motorola Droid 2 camera

Torch sample pictures (slide show):

Droid 2 sample pictures (slide show):

Two QWERTY sliders hard at work – one portrait with a small 3.2″ screen running BlackBerry 6, one landscape with a large 3.7″ screen running Android 2.2 – and both quite multimedia savvy.

Two 5 MP autofocus cameras ready to play – one with a single LED flash and VGA video recording, one with a dual LED flash and 480p video recording – and both with a two-stage shutter button.

Can the BlackBerry 9800 (Torch) and Motorola Droid 2 mix business with pleasure? Find out after the break…

Unboxing the Motorola Droid Pro, part 1

Last week I received a Motorola Droid Pro review unit from the lovely people at Verizon. It joins the ranks of the Droid 2 and the Droid X, but adds some unique features…

Most obvious is the QWERTY keyboard, which looks and feels exactly like a BlackBerry keyboard. There’s a pretty decent camera (5 MP autofocus with dual LED flash) and a global radio (CDMA + GSM/HSPA) on board. Sadly, the portrait layout means the screen is smaller (3.1″) and lower resolution (HVGA – 480×320 pixels) than its siblings.

I’ve already recorded the launch of this phone for Engadget during CTIA, but check out my unboxing video and expect some pictures soon!

Unboxing the Motorola Defy, part 1

This is the Motorola Defy, a rugged Android phone (dust-proof, water and scratch-resistant) with appealing specs (3.7″ WVGA display, 800 MHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, and 5 MP autofocus camera)…

Intrigued yet? I covered the launch of this device for Engadget at CTIA, where I submerged it in the name science – and it survived!

The lovely folks at Motorola provided me with a review unit this week, so enjoy my unboxing video, and expect pictures soon :)

Podcast: Talking with tnkgrl #27

After a two month hiatus caused by technical difficulties and scheduling conflicts, we’re back with another podcast (49 min):
- Audio version
- Video version

Both Matthew Bennett (Sticky Traction, Nokia Daily News, US Mobile Industry) and Tony Peric (fone frenzy) joined me this time – special thanks to Tony for the editing :)

This month, we covered the Nokia N8 and its awesome camera, the T-Mobile G2/HTC Desire Z, the Samsung Galaxy S devices (Fascinate, Epic 4G, Captivate, and Vibrant), and the Samsung Wave.

Other topics include CTIA Enterprise & Applications, my annual trip to Burning Man, the Apple iPod nano, the Motorola F3, the Motorola Charm, the Motorola Droid 2, and the BlackBerry Torch.

We’re planning to do this podcast monthly from now on… Stay tuned!

Click here to subscribe to this podcast.