Casio G’zOne Rock Cell Phone Review–Strange But Still Cool

Once again the threat of “salt fog” looms large against us, and once again it’s up to a heavily reinforced phone to stand against it.  Today’s challenger, the one, the only, the CASIO G’ZONE ROCK!

The upshot about typing the name in all caps is that I don’t have to do that ridiculous every-other-cap thing that looks like some kid playing around on the internet.  But anyway!

The Casio G’zOne Rock comes with a thermometer , an accelerometer , E-911 capability, a built-in motion sensor , a digital compass, voice recorder, speakerphone, Bluetooth connectivity, a phone book with a five hundred name and number capacity, internet browser, VCAST, VZ Navigator, mobile email, a variety of downloadable content, a two megapixel camera, alarm clock, calendar, calculator, stopwatch, and a battery capable of generating five full hours of talk time on a single charge.

Leave aside the fact that, one, this is a Casio, and two, it has the most preposterous name EVER, and three, it too claims to be sufficiently reinforced against the mysterious “salt fog”, the G’zOne Rock is actually a pretty good phone.  The cover has a strange feature in which it can partially open and stay locked in the partially open position, or with another click, open further.  Strange, but still cool.

In fact, that’s a great way to describe the Casio G’zOne Rock–strange, but still cool, with a nice array of features and some truly weird design quirks.

The Good

Features I’ve never even HEARD of are on this phone

Rugged design

The Bad

Design has me convinced I’m losing my mind

Most ridiculous name for a phone EVER

Score 8 / 10

Kingston’s DataTraveler 310 256GB USB drive

Those looking to carry the most amount of space they can in the smallest package will be happy to hear that Kingston has just released a 256GB USB flash drive. This flash drive, pictured above, is entitled the DataTraveler 310 has a read and write speeds of 25MB/second and 12MB/second, respectively.

Of course, with all of that space in such a little package comes with a ridiculous price, $1,108. Any buyers?

Cruise line stocks Mac Book Pros other Apple products

Normally, when you go on a cruise you’re forced to be without the ability to purchase your highly sought after electronics. But now, a cruise line called Celebrity Cruises is opening what they are called iLounges on all of their ships.

These iLounges will have kiosks to browse the web or check your email but will also feature a full Apple retail store so you can purchase all sorts of their products. Additionally, they will have a sort of Genius Bar that houses employees giving cruisers the ability to brush up on their Apple skills.

Because, you know, there’s nothing like dropping a few grand on a ticket and then another 2 or so grand on a MacBook Pro, right?

ZTE's Smooth takes a hint from Palm

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, whenever a popular consumer handset comes out, it’s not long after until an Asian company rips it off, producing their own handset. Well, the ZTE Smooth, is no different. As you can see its design closely resembles the Palm Pre but this one is actually running Android 1.6.

In addition to that it features a 2.8-inch touchscreen, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and a price tag of about $146.

It just makes me wonder, what do companies like Palm think when they see products like this?

Huawei U8800 Android powered cellular phone

Huawei’s been hard at work unveiling their new Android phones at MWC, such as the U8100 and U8300, as well as a ball dongle. I feel it only appropriate that we put some focus on the U8800.

The 8800 has Android 2.1 and is HSPA+ capable, and it has a 3.8 inch touchscreen. According to Huawai CEO: “The U8800 enables operators to provide tailor-made, stylish and affordable smartphones to their subscribers”.

iPhone 4G Coming with Super AMOLED Screen?

Here is another iPhone 4G rumor for you. I have already gotten previous rumors that include support for HD video, a taller design and a front-facing camera in the past months. Now we have a new one for you; a super AMOLED screen.

AMOLED screens are the best displays available to date so why should Apple hold back if they are planning to unveil one of the best handsets soon? The Samsung Wave did it so the iPhone 4G certainly can!

Thanko's Vibrating Bluetooth Bracelet

Thanko has a lot of terrific gadgets, and they have just revealed a Bluetooth Bracelet.

This bracelet LCD can display the time, as well as the the caller’s number. It is programmed to vibrate when you receive a call, and it will even vibrate when you forget your phone and get within 33 feet from your phone.

The version without the LCD but with an LED about $33, and the one with an LCD panel is $44.

Meebo arrives for the iPhone

Meebo has come to the iPhone. For those of you aren’t into Meebo, it is an IM app that supports AIM, Facebook, Google Talk, ICQ, Windows Live, and Yahoo.

Existing Meebo users can just get the app and start IMing, while new users can log on. This app has landscape typing, and even lets you search for a complete chat history with all your buddies.

Go ahead and get it at the app store, if you’re into this sort of thing.

Meebo has come to the iPhone. For those of you aren’t into Meebo, it is an IM app that supports AIM, Facebook, Google Talk, ICQ, Windows Live, and Yahoo.

Existing Meebo users can just get the app and start IMing, while new users can log on. This app has landscape typing, and even lets you search for a complete chat history with all your buddies.

Go ahead and get it at the app store, if you’re into this sort of thing.

Sharp JD-4C1CW phone and photo frame

Sharp announced yesterday the JD-4C1CW a cordless phone connected to a 7-inch touch panel with infrared.

The touchscreen panel is 4.3 inches, and it can double as a digital picture frame. The internal memory is 64MB, and more can be added with SD/SDHC/Memory Stick or Memory Stick Pro. The screen also has a status indicator, kitchen timer, address book, and alarm clock.

The JD-4C1CW comes with two handsets, and will hit Japan in April for a price of $310.

Origin Eon18 Gaming Laptop

When Dell acquired Alienware, three execs started a company called Origin, they have just made the Eon18 laptop.

The Eon18 is a customizable gaming laptop with an 18.4 inch full HD widescreen, three 250GB SSD, dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M GPUs, Core 2 Extreme Quad QX9300, and 7.1 high-def audio.

I’m not certain of the release date, but it is priced at $2,070.

V-Tech e-book reader for kids

Ah, VTech, thank you for making the stuff that the kids just love. Now, you are giving our young the Flip animated e-book reader.

The Flip has an animated touch screen as well as a read-along feature. As you can see, it has a QWERTY keyboard, and will allow your kids to play various word games.

It won’t be available until August for $59.99, and the e-books will be about $19.99.

Steve Jobs: Flash could severely cripple iPad’s battery

Everyone’s opinion of the iPad is pretty much one or the other; love or hate. However, if it were to feature Flash, among other things, more people would most likely be making the jump. However, if Apple CEO Steve Jobs is to be believed, their leaving out of Flash is a smart move because that 10 hour battery life would be dropped all they way down to just 1.5 hours.

Although, according to various media outlets, namely Gizmodo, this may not be the case. If Apple were to give Adobe the freedom to properly develop a version of Flash utilizing the correct hardware acceleration the drop in battery life would be nowhere near as dramatic as Mr. Jobs says. Of course, he then went on to again point to HTML5 as the destruction of Flash, which we’ve heard before.

Luxa2 M4 Laptop Cooler

Here is another cooling solution for the people who make use of their laptops a lot. The heating problem is certain to become a problem but with the Luxa2 Laptop cooler, you can be assured of addressing your laptop’s heating problem and provide it the proper protection from unwanted instances such as overheating due to excessive use.

What makes the Luxa2 M4 laptop cooler interesting is the fact that it comes embellished with Swarovski crystals on its aluminum surface. The Luxa2 M4 laptop cooler retails for only $49.99.

Samsung Convoy Cell Phone Review-Rugged But Basic

I confess that I like the trend in cell phones to make them more robust and resistant to damage.  They’re called MOBILE for a reason–they need to be able to go places, and if they go places, they might get dropped.  They need to be able to survive that, and the Samsung Convoy is a little more likely than most.

The Samsung Convoy is a flip phone with VZ Navigator and VCAST, a two megapixel camera, GPS, a phone book with capacity for a thousand name and number entries (and even room for email addresses, a street address and notes about the person in question), a calculator, a calendar, speakerphone, alarm clock, stopwatch, world clock, notepad, Bluetooth connectivity, ninety megs of onboard memory, compatibility with microSD cards, a variety of games available for download, and a battery capable of yielding at least five hours of talk time on a single charge.

Interestingly, the Samsung Convoy is a rugged phone in much the same fashion that the Motorola Barrage was, offering a certain modicum of protection against humidity, dust, shock, temperature variants and something called “salt fog”.  Living in the inland United States, I’m not sure what that is, but I really don’t like the sound of it.

At any rate, the Convoy, despite the fact that it has a silly name, certainly looks like a more sturdy phone than the usual, but this is tempered by a lack of features.  There aren’t as many here as their could be–I couldn’t find an FM radio here, for example.  In an era where even Tracfones come with FM radios, surely so too should most every other kind.  Still, this is a good, if basic, phone.

The Good

Clearly more robust than the ordinary

Rated against “salt fog”, and that sounds like a good thing

The Bad

Goofy name

Lack of features

Score 6 / 10

Motorola Golden i-Headset Launched at MWC

Here is a prototype that should help the busy bodies for their computing needs. Thanks to Motorola, the Golden i-Headset is a hands-free headset that can be used in rugged environments for some multi-tasking chores. It was designed to fit under a construction helmet where the tiny screen placed up close to the eye is equivalent to a 15” display.

This hands-free solution from Motorola also comes with a microphone, Bluetooth and WiFi which allows users to communicate with other devices.

The Robotector for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Apple iPhone and iPod Touch owners looking for some sensible protection for their device can look forward to something tougher with the Robotector. This intimidating silicone casing should be a great solution to maintain the physical quality of your Apple device and even comes with arms and legs like a robot would have.

Cute and intimidating, there is no word on pricing for the Robotector for now.

HTC Smart Available in Europe by April

The HTC Smart will be coming to select Europe countries this coming April and will be carried by Telefonica/O2. This affordable and easy to use phone will be initially launched in the UK, Ireland and Germany and will come with the HTC Sense.

Among the main features of the HTC Smart include a 2.8” QVGA touch screen, accelerometer, HSDPA, a 3.2MP built-in camera, 256MB ROM and RAM, and a 300 MHz processor. No word on how much the HTC Smart would retail.

Verizon and Skype form a partnership

Mobile World Congress has brought a lot of new cellular phones, and a grand announcement: Skype and Verizon will be working together.

Starting in March, this Skype Mobile application will allow users to make and receive unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls to any Skype user in the world, call international phone numbers at competitive Skype Out rates, as well as sending and receiving instant messages to other Skype users.

This will only be available to users of select 3G devices, and you can check my Source to see if yours is on it.

Newsmy CTV8 PMP

If could combine a PMP – Portable Media Player – and a Digital TV viewer in one device, the result would probably be the Newsmy CTV8.

The Newsmy CTV8 boasts a good set of features like 8GB of internal memory and a good 4.3-inch LCD screen plus built-in speakers. In terms of supported file formats it can playback AVI, FLV, WMV, MPG, and many others. It also works as an e-book reader and a voice recorder.

The latest PMP from Newsmy has a price tag of approximately $100.

eBay creates app for Android platform

If you are a hardcore user of eBay and own a smartphone with the Android platform, check out the new application created by eBay.

As you can imagine the application lets Android users easily view the auctions, as well as make bids and manage their own auctions. The application is already available for download, for free, and one of the god features is that it provides bid notifications so you can keep track of the auction once its near the end.

ZTE T-Mobile Vairy Touch II Cellphone

T-Mobile from the UK and ZTE from China got together to present their new cellphone at the MWC 2010. The device is called T-Mobile Vairy Touch II and will cost £60 which is approximately $90.

The ZTE T-Mobile Vairy Touch II can be considered an affordable touchscreen that comes with a 2-megapixel camera, bluetooth, and FM radio. The screen size is set at 2.8-inches and offers a resolution of 240×400 pixels. As for the battery life, it can last 300 hours in standby mode or 5 hours in talking mode.

Acer Aspire One 532G

532G is the codename of the new netbook presented by Acer which will become available in the upcoming weeks.

The Acer Aspire One 532G is the first netbook with the next-generation NVIDIA Ion 2 graphics and also Optimus technology so your graphics card will be faster than ever. Other features of the netbook include a battery life that can last up to 10 hours, 2GB of memory RAM, and and Intel Atom N450 processor.

The latest Acer netbook will be available in 3 colors: blue, red, and silver. Price is unknown at this moment.

iWonder Android tablet to be released to Chinese market, for $100!

Taiwanese contract manufacturer will debut a tablet in China known as the iWonder.

You wonder what it does? Well, it has Android, for starters. The iWonder tablet was just demonstrated by Marvell, and it only costs $100.

Seriously, it is that low? And how much does the iPad cost now?

Bioserie iPhone Case: Just Special

In case you are looking for a special iPhone case, look no further and put your eyes on the Bioserie. You’ll like it most if you are a green lover of mother nature too, because the iPhone case is made of plants.

As you can see on the image, the cover is suppose to resemble leaves, and it will become available in many colors – not only green but also purple and others.

Bioserie iPhone covers consist of a unique blend of biodegradable and environmentally friendly components, all derived from plants and annually renewable natural resources, not petrochemicals.

Onkyo DE411 Desktop Computer

The Onkyo DE411 is a very good looking all-in-one desktop computer that boats a 21.5-inch full HD screen.

It could be a lot faster because it only has an Atom 330 processor running at 1.6GHz, and 2GB of memory RAM… Anyway, in addition to the NVIDIA ION chipset, the Onkuo DE411 has a Digital TV Tuner, a hard-drive with 320GB of storage capacity, and a DVD Super Multi Drive.

The Onkyo DE411 All-In-One Desktop costs approximately $1,000.