New Gadgets

Verizon Wireless announced on Monday that it will activate its blazing fast 4G LTE service in Pensacola, Tallahassee, and Gainesville Florida; Montgomery and Mobile, Alabama; Fayetteville-Lumberton, North Carolina, and in and around Philadelphia on May 19th. Verizon currently offers two 4G LTE phones, the HTC ThunderBolt and the Samsung DROID Charge, two USB modems, and two 4G LTE mobile hotspots. Hit the jump for a release detailing Verizon’s LTE roll-out in Philadelphia, the largest market from today’s announcements.

4G Smartphones, Modems And Hot Spots Arrive On The Expanded Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Network In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 19

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Starting Thursday, May 19, more Verizon Wireless customers across the Philadelphia metro area will be able to surf the web, download files and share music and photos up to 10 times faster than before with Verizon Wireless’ 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network. The expansion will improve coverage in New Jersey to the northwestern sections of Gloucester, Camden and Burlington Counties including the towns of Woodbury Heights, Blackwood, Runnemede, Voorhees, Moorestown, Cinnaminson, Mount Laurel and Delran. In Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 4G LTE coverage will be expanded to include the areas surrounding Newtown, Richboro and Buckingham.

Consumers and businesses in Philadelphia, including Philly International Airport, portions of South Jersey and Delaware, have had access to the nation’s fastest 4G mobile technology since last December. The company also launched 4G LTE service in the Lehigh Valley in April and has announced plans to activate its 4G LTE service in Harrisburg and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre by the end of 2011.

“We are proud to help lead more of the Philadelphia metro area into the 4G LTE wireless broadband world, helping residents, small businesses and local government connect faster and more fully with each other and those outside our community,” said Mario Turco, regional president of Verizon Wireless. Our 4G LTE network is revolutionizing the way people communicate, and we know this connectivity will be a key communications and technology enabler for many years to come.”

Smartphones, Hotspots and Laptop Modems

Residents in more locations across the Philadelphia metro area can choose from an array of devices that have already launched to access the blazingly fast speeds of the 4G LTE network, including:

* Just introduced on Saturday, the DROID Charge by Samsung features a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED™ Plus display, a rear-facing 8-megapixel camera with LED flash and front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera for both stills and video chatting, Android 2.2 platform, 1 GHz application processor, HTML 5 Web browser and Mobile Hotspot capability that lets customers share the 4G LTE connection with up to 10 Wi-Fi-enabled devices or the 3G connection with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices. Available for $299.99 after discounts with a new 2-year customer agreement.
* ThunderBolt™ by HTC smartphone is powered by Android™ 2.2 and has an 8-megapixel rear facing camera and HD (720p) video recording, 1.3-megapixel front facing camera with video chatting capabilities, newest generation of the 1GHz Snapdragon processor and Mobile Hotspot capability that lets customers share the 4G LTE connection with up to eight Wi-Fi-enabled devices. Available for $249.99 after discounts with a new 2-year customer agreement.
* Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MiFi® 4510L and the Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot SCH-LC11 let customers share the 4G LTE internet connection with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices at the same time. Each available for $99.99 after discounts with a new 2-year customer agreement.
* Verizon Wireless 4G LTE USB Modem 551L comes equipped with a fold-out USB connector, a four color LED Service Status Indicator and an internal antenna. Available for $99.99 after discounts with a new 2-year customer agreement.
* The LG VL600 4G LTE modem comes equipped with a fixed USB connector, an LED Service Status Indicator and an internal antenna. Available for $99.99 after discounts with a new 2-year customer agreement.
* Pantech’s UML290 USB modem comes equipped with a fold-away, 180 degree rotating USB connector, an LED Service Status Indicator and a internal antenna. Available for $49.99 after discounts with a new 2-year customer agreement.

Coverage

In real-world, fully-loaded network environments, 4G LTE users should experience average data rates of 5 to 12 megabits per second (Mbps) on the downlink and 2 to 5 Mbps on the uplink, so customers can enjoy the fast speeds of the world’s first large-scale 4G LTE network. Verizon Wireless began introducing the globe’s first large-scale LTE network on December 5, 2010, covering more than 110 million Americans, and is quickly expanding national coverage. In addition to expanding five new markets, the company is adding nine new markets this week, for a total of 55 metropolitan areas covered. The company is rapidly building out its 4G LTE network, and is on course to deliver 4G LTE to its entire 3G wireless footprint by the end of 2013. In addition, the company is working with rural communications companies to collaboratively build and operate a 4G network in those areas using the tower and backhaul assets of the rural company and Verizon Wireless’ core 4G LTE equipment and premium 700 MHz spectrum.

When customers travel outside of a 4G coverage area, the devices automatically connect to Verizon Wireless’ 3G network, enabling customers to stay connected from coast to coast. Verizon Wireless’ 3G network is the most reliable high-speed wireless data network in the country, allowing customers with laptops and smartphones to download and use cool apps, from mobile social networking platforms to GPS-enabled maps, rapidly browse the web to keep up with news, sports, stock quotes, Hollywood gossip and more, work on-the-go with fast file sharing and stream must-see video and customized radio stations.

4G LTE Data Plans and Pricing

With the DROID Charge by Samsung and the ThunderBolt by HTC, customers will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plan and a 4G LTE data package. Nationwide Talk plans begin at $39.99 monthly access and an Unlimited 4G LTE data plan is $29.99 monthly access.

4G LTE Mobile Broadband plans for the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MiFi® 4510, Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot SCH-LC11, Verizon Wireless 4G LTE USB Modem 551L, LG VL600 4G LTE modem and Pantech UML290 USB modem begin at $50 monthly access for 5 GB of data. Data usage can be tracked by logging on to My Verizon online at www.verizonwireless.com/myverizon.

Visit www.verizonwireless.com/lte for more information about Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network.

Verizon’s second 4G LTE smartphone, the Samsung DROID Charge, is finally available. Here’s a quick refresher of the phone’s spec sheet: it offers a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, a 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, a 32GB microSD card, and an 8-megapixel camera capable of recording 720p HD video.

We recently reviewed the DROID Charge, and with data speeds that hovered regularly around 20Mbps in New York City, we called it the 4G LTE “phone to beat.” You can pick up the DROID Charge in Verizon Wireless stores and online for $299.99 with a new two-year contract.

An International Trade Commission (ITC) judge has ruled that Kodak did not infringe upon camera patents held by Apple. Reuters is reporting that an administrative law judge rejected the Cupertino-company’s claims, with a final decision by the ITC due on September 19th. Kodak, although not as prominent as it once was when film reigned supreme, still holds a treasure-trove of patents.

“Many investors see Kodak’s value in its lucrative portfolio of intellectual property,” reads the report. “It has more than 1,000 patents and it made an estimated $630 million in 2010 from its licenses. But analysts have said this revenue from licenses is unpredictable and the portfolio might eventually dwindle.” Kodak has a pending suit filed against both Apple and Research In Motion, again surrounding smartphone camera technology, that is set to be decided upon on May 23rd.

If you have been waiting for Iomega to launch its new ScreenPlay DX HD media player, your wait in now over. Its now been launched and is available to buy in stores for $229m for a 1TB Iomega ScreenPlay DX HD Media Player or you can double up to 2GB of storage for an extra $70.

Its a DivX-certified media player providing access to videos, movies, photos, and songs on the Internet using the built-in web browser with Flash 10.1 plug-in. The Iomega ScreenPlay DX HD is equipped with support for 1080p video playback as well as Dolby / DTS decoding and features services such as Pandora and Netflix to keep you busy.

Connectivity is provided by a DX. 802.11n USB 2.0 adapter, includes a ful QWERTY keyboard remote and supports : H.264, WMV, RMVB, MPEG-1/2/4, DivX, DivX Plus HD(MKV).

With the final arrival of Apple’s white iPhone  in stores, or rather on the web.

Google have also created a white smartphone but have taken the white theme a little further on their Android phone and added white to the back of their Nexus S smartphone, leaving the front noir.

The two-tone Google Nexus S might be accompanied by a few other different colour matches, including a silver and black version, which was spotted making an appearance on European retailers’ listings a couple of weeks ago.

However the new two-tone range doesn’t seem to have been officially launched by Google at the moment and there are no details on prices or when these new smartphones will be available to purchase. But as always we will keep your posted if anything comes to light.

The Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 has been officially announced. The handset was first referred as Samsung Galaxy S Mini  with some specs and pictures having surfaced earlier.

The Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 features a 3.5-inch HVGA (320×480) touchscreen display, a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and is powered by an 800MHz processor.

The Galaxy Ace runs Android 2.2 Froyo and offers you HSPA 7.2Mbps connectivity and a quad-band GSM radio. Other goodies are Social Hub, Swype keyboard input, WiFi up to wireless N, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, FM radio with RDS and a microSd card slot that supports up to 32GB. Currently, there is no info about its availability or pricing.

To search for more mobile phones coming soon you can visit www.phones4u.co.uk

The long-awaited HTC Desire Z is now available on Vodafone. It can be had for free from £35 per month.

The HTC Desire Z is that rarest of things – a top quality Android phone with a physical QWERTY keyboard. For those of you who just can’t get to grips with touch-screen keypads, it deserves to feature very highly on your wish list.

The device sports a well-balanced 800MHz processor, a 5-megapixel camera and a sharp 3.7-inch screen. It runs on version 2.2 (Froyo) of the Android OS.

Head on over to Vodafone and you’ll have a choice of contracts to choose from, starting from £25 per month (with a £199 charge up front) for 24 months.

If you do happen to secure an HTC Desire Z this festive period, keep in mind that there are plenty of accessories to kit it out with on the market.

You should read – HTC Desire Z review

I love my iPod, and I especially love my music collection, what I don’t love is trying to listen to my iPod in the car. I hate driving with earbuds and my stupid little portable speaker just doesn’t cut it. But since the introduction of Airplay, Apple’s new streaming technology that allows audio (photos and video) to be streamed from any iOS device to another iOS device, I knew good things were about to happen.

Enter PhotoFast, the newest way to listen to your tunes, the way you want to, in your car. After what appears to be a somewhat labor intensive, although pretty straightforward installation, this cool little black WIFI box will automatically turn on when you start your car and will connect with your WIFI enabled device, streaming your music library through your stereo system. Very nice.

You will have the ability to pause, fast forward and rewind using your iPod. The PhotoFast is designed to transmit high quality sound. Works with iPad, iPod and iPhone.

Surely some car manufacturers will be jumping on the Airplay bandwagon, but until then, PhotoFast is now available in Japan, and look for it sometime soon, in a store near you for around $299.00

We have featured a few different iPhone and iPod docks here at Geeky Gadgets, the latest one won’t actually charge your iPod, but it is designed to be used with your iPod when you are listening to music.

It works in a similar way to an acoustic guitar, and the wooden iPod dock is designed to amplify the sound from your iPods speakers.

The Koostik wooden iPad dock is available in a range of different wood including maple, and walnut, you can find out more details over at Koostic and prices start at about $85 to $90.

Energizer Inductive Charger and Energizer Smart Charger won an International CES Innovations 2011 Design and Engineering Awards Honoree in the Portable Products category.

The Energizer  Inductive Charger enables consumers to charge any portable device 5 Watts or less that is Qi-enabled or has Qi built in. This includes phones, mp3 players, digital cameras, GPS devices and more. The new Energizer® Recharge® Smart™ Charger  was developed in response to consumer interest in understanding more about their batteries’ charging status, thanks to its large LCD screen with a countdown clock displaying remaining charging time.