Gadgets Connect

This Friday — otherwise known as "iphone Day" in the Gadget Lab — will also mark the debut of the GLab’s new videoblog, featuring the same cast of clowns characters who you’ve learned to love in the Gadget Lab podcast: Dylan Tweney, Jose Fermoso and Danny Dumas (from left to right in the above photo). We’d call it the "GLab Vlog" except that phrase is unpronounceable in any human language (that we’re capable of speaking, anyhow). Tune in to this space tomorrow for the first installment of the videoblog, which will feature — naturally — our first look at the iPhone 3G. What else would you like to see the Gadget Lab crew tackle in upcoming episodes of the videoblog? (Read the full post about ‘Debuting Friday: The Gadget Lab Videoblog’…)

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You don’t have to wait until tomorrow to get iPhone 2.0. You can download it and install it to a first-generation iPhone right now.

iPhone 2.0 is the upgraded version of Apple’s phone software. It includes a variety of new features, including App Store support (so you can install third-party applications and games), the ability to search through contacts, and more. It will be preinstalled on the new iPhone 3G when that becomes available at 8am (local time) July 11, and it’s also available as a free software upgrade for current iPhone owners.

The alert bloggers at Macrumors discovered that the OS upgrade is available now, almost 24 hours before the phone officially launches.

(Read the full post about ‘How to Get the iPhone 2.0 Upgrade Right Now - For Free’…)

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Spain’s Movistar has at last posted its somewhat confusing iphone prices. The handsets start at €0 for the 8GB iPhone on the €60 ($94) per month plan, but on top of that €60 you have to pay another €25 ($39) for the data, which is a fairly decent 1GB per month. If you choose to pay a little more for the phone, you can have a cheaper monthly rate. If you pay €360 for thew 16GB handset, you can get away with a tiny €9 ($14) voice plan, plus another €15 ($24) for the data (which at this end is just 200MB), coming in at a total of €24 ($38). Curiously, you can’t combine the big data plan with the small voice plan, which, as I speak such terrible Spanish that I never actually call anyone, would be perfect for me. (Read the full post about ‘Spanish iPhone Tarrifs Announced: Surprisingly Cheap’…)

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Jul 10th 2008 at 5:50AM var There it is, the new freebie from Apple which turns your iphone or ipod touch into a remote control. It works with Apple TV and iTunes over the WiFi network to play, pause, skip and shuffle your songs stored in your iTunes library. You get access to playlists, album art (displayed in the Remote app), control over AirTunes speakers, and the ablity to search your entire library. (Read the full post about ‘Apple’s Remote: turns your iPhone into a WiFi remote control’…)

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Kodak has just added their own pocket sized camcorder, the Zi6 HD, to what seems to be a growing collection, and they have possibly taken the lead in terms of quality. The Zi6 HD from Kodak offers the ability to shoot in HD quality at 720p. This little camcorder is able to capture video at either 30 or 60 frames-per-second and can also capture video at a lower VGA quality, which is better suited for quick and easy uploads to online video sites such as YouTube. Aside from the ability to capture video at 60fps 720p HD quality, the Zi6 also features a 2.4-inch display, flip-out USB connection, and has software included for easy YouTube video uploads. (Read the full post about ‘Kodak rolls out 720p capable Zi6 HD pocket camcorder’…)

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Fans of 2D shooters, or Shmups as they are commonly known, should mark July 23 and July 24 on their calendars. That’s the days Capcom has announced the new 1942: Joint Strike game will be released on Xbox Live and the playstation Network.

Developed by Backbone Entertainment, also responsible for the forthcoming Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, the game takes the classic 2D Shmup and updates the graphics to 3D and HD.

(Read the full post about ‘1942: Joint Strike confirmed release this month’…)

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Tomorrow may be iPhone 2.0 day, but today we can get our hands on iTunes 7.7 and apps! This means that iPod owners get a new version of iTunes while current iphone and ipod Touch owners get what they have been wanting for over a year–the App Store. If you want to make the move to 7.7 you will currently have to download it straight from Apple after which it will install normally. The update makes the App Store available, as well as the remote application (iTunes link), and support for MobileMe. As for the App Store, that’s the big news today. Many people have already pointed out that this is the most important part of the iPhone 2.0 roll out. (Read the full post about ‘Apple App Store and iTunes 7.7 arrive’…)

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Belkin’s new FlyWire offers full High Definition resolution (1080p) by hooking up Blu-ray players, receivers, video game consoles and set-top boxes to HDTVs and projectors without the need for wires. This wireless transmitter will operate on the 5GHz band, and it boasts the ability to transmit video content without latency as you won’t experience any loss in video quality since it avoids video compression like the plague. Belkin hopes to clears up common misconceptions and misunderstandings concerning wireless transmission where high quality video is concerned with the FlyWire, as even video games work smoothly without a hitch. There will be a couple of models available - the FlyWire and FlyWire R1 that retail for $999.99 and $699.99, respectively. (Read the full post about ‘Belkin FlyWire’…)

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Does anybody really “play” Second Life any more? Online worlds were pretty popular a few years ago, but that day seems to have passed.

Apparently, though, Google didn’t get the memo as they’ve launched their own virtual world complete with custom rooms and big-headed avatars.

(Read the full post about ‘Google introduces new online world Lively’…)

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The Gadget Lab readers are hot today. This tipoff comes from Ricardo Fonseca in Portugal, where Vodafone has just sent a mail to its customers with details of the iphone 3G pricing. Again, data suffers, but this time, handset prices are through the roof, too. The graphic above needs little translation. Here, then, are the details of those plans: You’ll pay either €30 ($47), €45 ($71) or €65 ($102) per month, including 100, 230 or 500 minutes of talk time and SMS messages. And the data? A ridiculous 250MB per month, on all plans, with an excess charge of 6 cents per Megabyte. If you opt to by the iPhone tariff-free, you can use a special pay-as-you go data plan, which costs €3 ($5) per day for 20MB. (Read the full post about ‘Portugese IPhone Details Announced’…)

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