Activating an unlocked phone

An unlocked phone is a GSM phone that is not tied down to any carrier. This means that in the United States, you can use the phone with either T-Mobile or AT&T, and if you go abroad, you can swap out your SIM card for a foreign one if you so choose. Hooking up an unlocked phone for service is a relatively easy process, even if you don't have a contract already. Your first task is to order and sign up for service either at a store on the carrier's Web site. Of course, carrier reps will ask you if you need a phone, but you don't have to buy one by any means. Just tell the sales representative that you already own a handset. They may ask which model you own, but they shouldn't require that information to provide service. Once you've signed your contract and have your SIM card, just pop it into the phone and start making calls.

There are a couple points to keep in mind, though. In order to browse the Web, you will need to make sure your phone is programmed with the Internet settings unique to either AT&T or T-Mobile. The carrier can give you the settings, but you also can find them on the manufacturer's Web site. And don't listen if the store reps try to dissuade you from using an unlocked phone by telling you it's inherently faulty. That simply isn't true.

Also, if a phone comes free (or nearly free) with your contract, you should think about getting it anyway. It's always a good idea to have another phone around in case your primary handset is lost or stolen.

iSonic Crystal 701 & Shade 301 Two Wearable Video Displays

iSonic has just released two of its personal wearable displays known as the Crystal 701 and the Shade 301, Myvu devices. They both display iPdo classic/Touch/Nano/ iPhone contents.The Crystal 701, brings a wearable 37" video display, and features remote control unit, detachable dock connector cable, 640 x 480 video output from the 2007 iPod range, and USB port. Available in Black or Umber color for 280€.Our Shade 301 displays a 27" image in 320x240 resolution. Otherwise it provides the same specifications as the Crystal 701, and should cost around 200€.

Buffalo Solar Powered Wireless Keyboard

Buffalo Japan has introduced the BSKBW01SB a solar powered wireless keyboard which makes you say goodbye to spare batteries. It has a small adjustable solar panel above the num pad which provides juice. It runs on batteries as well in case you wish to take this baby to a LAN party. The keyboard will feature an adjustable solar panel right on the upper right portion of the gadget itself, sort of like a solar powered calculator.

The keyboard has 17 hot keys, operates in the usual 2.4 Ghz frequency and has a range of 10 meters. Available in Japan by mid July for 13,775 Yen ($ 135).

Samsung i780 now in India

All those waiting to get their hands on Samsung's flagship business phone "SGH-i780" will get to purchase it only after two weeks and exclusively from The Mobile Store.

Running on Windows Mobile 6.0, Samsung i780 is a business-oriented handset that packs lots of nice features such as: a 2.6 inch TFT touchscreen display with 320 x 320 pixels and 65K colors, a full QWERTY keypad, Wi-Fi, GPS, an "optical mouse", tri-band GSM connectivity with GPRS and EDGE, HSDPA connectivity, Office document viewer, Opera Mobile browser, email, Music player, FM radio, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, a 2 Megapixel camera with video recording, 150MB of built-in memory and microSD card slot. The handset has a slim case that measures only 12.9 millimeters in thickness and packs a powerful 1480 mAh battery that can last up to 7 hours in talk-time mode and up to 400 hours in stands-by mode.

The announced retail price of Samsung i780 is of Rs. 25,000 ($585 or 370 Euros), but the website of The MobileStore lists the smartphone at only Rs. 20,379 ($476 or 305 Euros).

AMEX DIGITAL Portable Super Multi Drive for both PC and Mac

The PD-K06e Portable Super Multi Drive supports 20x write speeds on both DVD-R/+R along with the capability to write at 10x speed on DVD-R/+R dual/double layer media. The Quiet Drive Technology reduces the noise level of audio and video playback while also delivering increased writing reliability. Liquid Crystal Tilt/Blur Compensator plays and records to discs more reliably - the ad Research technology that compensates for warped discs. Dual/Double Layer recording provides nearly twice the capacity of a single layer recordable DVD-R (8.5 Gbytes vs. 4.7 Gbytes).

AMEX DIGITAL Portable Super Multi Drive for both PC and Mac, which from the looks of it we think is really hot. Available with an MSRP of $89.00, this sleek gadget comes in black and white and supports 20x write speeds on both DVD-R/+R along with the capability to write at 10x speed on DVD-R/+R dual/double layer media. It has this cool Liquid Crystal Tilt/Blur Compensator that’s said to play and record discs more reliably.

Kodak Zi6 HD pocket video camera

Kodak Zi6 comes at a time when the YouTube-crazy generation has not yet been satiated. The Zi6 features 720p HD video compared to the archetypal 640x480 VGA and a 2.4-inch LCD. On the face of it, there is a switch that toggles between standard and macro focus distances.There are a couple of ways in which veteran Kodak outclasses its younger competitors: 720p HD video compared to the typical 640x480 VGA and a 2.4-inch LCD. A nice touch, which shows its heritage, is a switch that toggles between standard and macro focus distances.

As seems to define this product category, it has a built-in, flip-out USB connector. Cleverly, the button for the connector also serves as a tiny mirror for shooting yourself in the face. It also accepts SD cards, but that's to supplement its paltry 128MB of storage--only 30MB of which is available for video. I tried it, and that was 36 seconds. It might as well have no internal memory at all. Extrapolating--Kodak has not published any capacity information--that's about 50MB per minute, or 41 minutes of video on a typical 2GB card. Which is optional.

Kodak plans to charge $179.95 for the Zi6 when it ships in September, and you'll have to tack on at least another $20 for a 2GB card, which brings the price up to $200. People buy these camcorders because they're cute, cheap and easy. They don't seem to care about the poor video quality, so I doubt they'll pay a premium for HD--and I haven't seen the video yet, so it could very well be poor HD. (We'll have a review soon.) And it doesn't do Mac, making it not-so-easy for lots of people in its target market. Furthermore, the extra cost of the card puts it in competition with a whole other class of products, such as the Aiptek Go-HD, which offer features like zoom lenses. It'll be quite interesting to see how the market responds to the Zi6.

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