Nokia has already released their Lumia 800 with its 3.7″ AMOLED screen, Nokia N9 polycarbonate derived body in Europe. But for the US, Nokia has released at the CES the oft-rumored Nokia Ace, now known as the Nokia Lumia 900.

Tech Specs

• Networks: GSM/EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 850/1900/2100, LTE Band 4 (1700/2100) & 17 (700)
• OS: Windows Phone Release 7.5 – Mango Commercial Release 2 (Mango + LTE)
• Memory: 512MB RAM
• Storage: 16 GB internal memory (14.5GB user memory) + SkyDrive cloud storage
• Weight: 160g (5.6 ounces)
• Dimensions: (max): 127.8 x 68.5 x 11.5 mm (5 x 2.7 x .45 inches)
• A-GPS
• Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n)
• USB 2.0 high-speed
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR

Sporting larger 4.3″ AMOLED screen and larger single polycarbonate body than the Nokia N9 and Nokia Lumia 800. Also comes with the standard 8mp camera (at least for the Nokia N9 and Nokia Lumia 800) as well as a larger battery and a forward facing 1.3 megapixel a must have for the upcoming Skype release for Mango/Tango – the Nokia Lumia 900 will hopefully reinsert Nokia as a household name in the US.

[ Links: Nokia Conversations ]

Remember the Polaroid Spectra from the 1980′s? And no, I don’t mean those hipster versions that kids are wearing for belt buckles. Well, Polaroid has shoved a very modern 14 megapixel and a Zink printer into a decidedly retro case.

Camera Features:

• 14.0 megapixel digital camera
• 2.7” bright color LCD for viewing images
• SD compatible for expanded memory
• Rechargeable lithium-ion battery

Integrated Printer Features:

• Snap, print, share—no computer connections needed
• 3X4” full-color prints
• Smudge-proof, water-resistant, tear-resistant photos
• No Ink. No Hassles.™—no ink cartridges or ribbons to throw away using ZINK® Zero Ink® Printing

Technology from ZINK Imaging

• View and crop images on camera before printing
• Option to print date, file number
• Add a fun and useful border to your photo including the Polaroid Classic Border Logo format
• Upload custom borders
• Print up to 25 photos per full battery charge

Costing $299, with the Zink printable paper costs about $20 for a pack of 30, this is a cool way to get back that old school Polaroid feeling. Even shake and blow on it for old times sake.

[ Links: Polaroid ]

Big things come in little packages, right? Well, Orb Audio is out to prove that old adage right with their new Class T amplifier, the Mini-T to go along with their small, but full of sound, handmade Orb speakers.

The Mini-T allows consumers to use high quality home speakers instead of poorly built, questionable sounding computer speakers. By pairing the Mini T with Orb’s award-winning speakers, consumers now have a simple, elegant audio solution that looks as good as it sounds. This is a great way to bring high quality audio to your desktop or TV without large, complicated surround sound receivers.

The Mini-T is based on legendary T-Class amplifier technology, known for its audiophile sound quality and low harmonic distortion (just .04%). Like Orb’s speakers, the Mini-T produces a rich, brilliant soundstage with detailed imaging. Together, the speakers and amp create an immersive listening experience that will not disappoint.

The Mini-T is also small, measuring six inches wide, one and a quarter inches high, and five inches deep. Finished in an attractive charcoal gray, with black gloss front, the Mini T complements any of the six available Orb speaker colors.

The Mini-T can be purchased by itself for $88 USD or can be purchased alongside a matching pair of Orb Audio speakers for $299, for a savings total of $29 off of MSRP. I’m personally digging the hand polished steel enclosure on the speakers.

The Mini-T can accept audio input from many sources including your iPod, iPhone, PC and many other sources.

[ Links: Orb Audio ]

Lytro, the first light field camera is up for pre-sale with an expected delivery date starting in early 2012 at prices that range from $499 for the Red Hot (red) 16gb or $399 for the Graphite (grey) or Electric Blue (cyan) 8gb. The 16gb version will hold 750 pictures and 8gb will hold 350 pictures.

So what’s so special about Lytro?

Technology: Lytro Light Field Sensor and Lytro Light Field Engine 1.0.
Lens: 8x optical zoom; Constant f/2 lens.
Controls: Power button: Shutter button; Zoom slider; Touchscreen.
Display: 1.46 in | 33 mm back-lit LCD display with glass touchscreen.
Exposure: Tap on touchscreen to set exposure.
Battery: Long-life Li-Ion internal battery.
File Output: Light field picture file (.lfp).
Light Field Resolution: 11 Megarays: the number of light rays captured by the light field sensor.
Software: Includes a free desktop application for importing, processing and interacting with living pictures from the camera. It is built for Mac OS and requires Mac OS X 10.6 or higher. A Windows application is in development.
Picture Output: Produces HD-quality interactive, living pictures.
Picture Storage: Free storage for living pictures on Lytro.com, subject to the Terms of Use. (Internet access required)
Picture Viewing: View and interact with living pictures on the Lytro camera as well as any internet-connected computer, smartphone or tablet supported.
Light Field Engine: Version 1.0. This is the software that processes light fields to produce interactive pictures. Keep watching this space!
Shell: Ultra-light anodized aluminum structural skin.
Grip: TPSiV-Injection Silicon Rubber.

That equates to a picture that you can zoom in and out of without having to reshoot the picture. So if you see something interesting going on in your background, you can zoom in at a later date – take a look at the Adobe Flash based photo gallery. This takes picture bombing to a new level.

The software is Apple Mac only at the moment, but there is a Windows version in development.

[ Links: Lytro Light Field Camera ]

Due out in September (next month, yay!), Wacom will introduce Inkling. A way to capture your sketches on paper and transport those ideas to your computer in an editable, vector format.

The Inkling digital sketch pen captures a digital likeness of your work while you sketch with its ballpoint tip on any sketchbook or standard piece of paper. Designed for rough concepting and creative brainstorming, Inkling is ideal for the front end of the creative process. Later, refine your work on your computer using an Intuos4 tablet or Cintiq interactive pen display.

In addition to capturing your sketch, stroke by stroke, Inkling allows you to create layers in digital files while you sketch on paper. Digital files are transferred to your computer using the Inkling Sketch Manager software, and later, exported to applications such as Adobe® Photoshop® and Illustrator®. Files can also be opened with the included Inkling Sketch Manager software to edit, delete, add layers or change file formats.

It comes with 4 spare ink cartridges, the Wacom Inkling pen – that looks like the current Intuos 4 tablet pens, a rechargeable pen battery, a receiver, a rechargeable receiver battery and all of that fits comfortably within a carrying case that folds to protect all of the above. With support for Apple OS X 10.4 and higher, as well as Windows XP and higher what, no Linux drivers!? and an expected release price of $199, the Wacom Inkling looks to be a great addition to all of you sketchers and drawers out there.

[ Links: Wacom Inkling ]

Intel as expected officially confirmed the information that three of its CPUs: Pentium G622, Core i3-2102 and Core i3-2312M – may be “improved” while in use by customers. All that it takes is to purchase an advance card and enter the code printed on it into a special “unlock application”. All three processors are built on Intel’s Sandy Bridge architecture.

Link to the original article…

Our long, dark, and frequently-ridiculous Verizon iPhone rumor nightmare is over. Verizon this morning at a press event here in New York City confirmed longstanding rumors that AT&T has lost their exclusive arrangement with Apple, and that Verizon will be getting the iPhone. According to Verizon, the device will appear next month and will be CDMA/EVDO only not LTE. According to Verizon, this is the culmination of two years of discussion between the two companies. “We have enormous respect for the company this team has built and the hard-won loyalty they’ve won from their customers,” Verizon COO Tim Cook proclaimed on stage. “This is just the beginning of a great relationship between Apple and Verizon.”

Link to the original article…

Last week it was discussed at length how the investment community would like the public to believe that the shift to low cap and high overage broadband pricing is “inevitable.” We also discussed how cable industry lobbyists would like the public to believe that such a shift isn’t about making more money, it’s about helping the poor. Not only is the metered billing push absolutely about making money, it’s about artificially constricting the pipe to protect uncompetitive carriers and TV revenues from Internet video. But instead, there’s a very concerted effort afoot to portray this shift as necessary, inevitable, and even altruistic.

Most consumers prefer the simplicity of flat rate pricing, and understand that ISPs are perfectly profitable under the flat-rate pricing model. They also understand that this is a pipe dream forged by never-satisfied investors, and once implemented ends with ever soaring per gig fees and ever shrinking usage caps.

The PR campaign continues this week, with Hewlett-Packard’s Joe Weinman claiming at GigaOM that not only is such a pricing shift “inevitable,” but that it’s a shift that actually originates with consumers, not investors or ISP executives. Weinman starts out on the wrong foot immediately, by confusing “pay per use” with low cap and high overage pricing models:

For the record, I like unlimited Internet access just as much as anyone else. However, such plans appear to be on their way out, and here s why. As explored in “The Market for Melons”, pay-per-use is not an evil plot by greedy robber barons, but a natural outcome of independent, rational consumer choice. Consider a town with an all-you-can-eat (flat rate) buffet and an a la carte (pay-per-use) restaurant. Smart shoppers on diets will save money by patronizing the a la carte restaurant, whereas heavy eaters will save money by visiting the buffet…. Bottom line: it is not the proprietors driving this dynamic, but the customers themselves acting out of pure, rational self-interest

Except for the thousandth time, ISP’s are not interested in real pay per use plans because the majority of their users (who simply check e-mail a few times a day) would downgrade to $5 tiers and cost carriers billions. What ISPs are proposing is flat-rate pricing with costly per gigabyte overages (completely detached from any real-world costs, which for ISPs are fixed or dropping) layered on top. Meanwhile, the suggestion this is a consumer driven push is absurd. This is an investor driven push for obvious reasons, and you have to wonder if Weinman saw the consumer reaction when Time Warner Cable proposed charging consumers up to $5 per gigabyte then insisted such pricing was for their own good.

Weinmen offers up a second post in which he hallucinates a laundry list of supposed benefits that will occur from this change in pricing paradigm. Most of them revolve around technology platforms designed to aid this monitoring and metering of usage and billing, which we’ll go out on a crazy limb and guess is precisely what Weinman is selling at HP. Unfortunately, Weinman begins his sales pitch just like the cable industry traditionally has by pretending this is an inevitability consumers want, and that such a pricing shift is financially necessary. Neither are true.

Link to the original article…

First cable companies insisted that people canceling TV service weren’t real. Then, as companies began noticing the last two quarters that people were actually canceling TV service due to cost, they began insisting those consumers really don’t matter all that much (which is only true when looking at the relatively massive size of some companies). The reality is that you can’t continue to impose rate hikes twice a year and not see some consumer response; the cable industry just doesn’t care because they feel these consumers are little more than a statistical blip.

The seriousness with which cable companies take consumer concerns about high prices is reflected in the way they continue to gleefully impose rate hikes on not only cable TV but DVR rentals and other services. When they do try their hand at the unfamiliar idea of lowering prices, the end result is often somewhat insulting, like Time Warner Cable’s new entry level cable tiers that offer no consumer value and are loaded with restrictions like the inability to bundle it with additional services, or even use a DVR.

Following in Time Warner Cable’s footsteps, Charter is illustrating what they think about cord cutters and those struggling financially, by sending out notices saying they’ll be hiking the price of, well, everything:

effective with your January Statement pricing will be adjusted for TV Install fees: New Primary Outlet Installation and Reconnection will be adjusted from $29.99 to $39.00; Change of Service Special Trip from $23.62 to $30.00; Additional Outlet with Initial Install from $9.87 to $9.99; Additional Outlet with Special Trip from $29.86 to $39.00; Labor Charge (formerly Hourly Service Charge) from $34.85 to $39.00; Inside Wire Service Call from $35.00 to $45.00; Ancillary Equipment Install with Initial Install from $5.99 to $9.99 and Ancillary Equipment Install with Special Trip from $27.15 to $35.00.

Public Access Fee will change from $0.52 to $0.55, Franchise Fee will change from $1. 13 to $1.17. Basic Service Tier from $12. 85 to $16.21 an increase of $3.36; Expanded Service Tier from $48.14 to $44.78 a decrease of (-$3.36). Customers in a promotion will not see this immediate price change; however, new pricing will apply at the end of your promotional period.

While Charter jacked up the price of essentially everything, they did reduce the price of their “Expanded Service” tier from $48.14 to $44.78. However, they actually increased the price of their entry-level “Basic” service tier $12.85 to $16.21. Why? As Charter customers in our forums correctly note, Charter was seeing more customers downgrading to their cheapest TV tier due to the economy, so they raised the price and lowered the price of the next level tier in the hopes they’d upgrade. Cable’s borderline disdain for cash-strapped customers couldn’t be any more clear, and it will be a historical cornerstone when the story of the inevitable (but glacial) Internet video (r)evolution is told.

Link to the original article…

Verizon finally aired their first ever commercial for their upcoming LTE network during last night’s Sunday Night Football. The Stephen Spielberg-esque ad ad features a lightning bolt delivered by snail mail, and confirms rumors that the network is “coming in December.” As previously noted, Verizon’s initial launch next month will be fairly significant, the 5-12 Mbps service covering 38 markets (roughly one third of the population) and 60 airports right out of the gate. We’re still waiting on Verizon to reveal their pricing for the speedier service, which as of last week the company still claimed they weren’t sure of.

Link to the original article…

There’s finally some parity between the Apple iPad and the Apple iPhone with both being updated to 4.2 earlier today.

The Apple iOS 4.2 update brings the following:

• iOS 4.2 brings multitasking from iPhone and iPod touch to iPad. So you can be more productive as you work, have more fun as you play, or do a little of both.
• Now your iPad has more room for more apps. Move apps into folders with drag-and-drop simplicity to declutter your Home screens and keep your apps organized for fast access to your favorites.
• AirPrint makes it simple to print email, photos, web pages, and documents right from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. A few taps is all it takes to go from viewing it onscreen to holding a printed copy.
• AirPlay lets you stream digital media wirelessly from your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch to your Apple TV and AirPlay-enabled speakers.
• Find My iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch — the MobileMe feature that helps you locate your missing device and protect its data — is now free on any iPhone 4, iPad, or fourth-generation iPod touch running iOS 4.2.

Clocking in at over 620mb, this update also brings Game Center, an improved Mail client and enhanced enterprise support and integration. I’m downloading and installing right now!

[ Links: iOS 4.2 ]

Armed with an adjustable, articulated back stand, the Zero Chroma allows for multiple hands-free viewing angles whether the Apple iPad is in landscape or portrait mode.

The Zero Chroma Vario Apple iPad case allows for:

• 16-Angle Rotating Theater-Stand – Pick almost any desired angle for hands-free movies, reading, typing, gaming, surfing, etc.
• Landscape & Portrait Modes – Rotate the stand until it clicks into place in landscape or portrait, then pick an angle.
• Unlimited Handle-Modes – Effortlessly hold the stand in any number of handle-modes.
• Anti-Slip Rubber Bumpers & Stand Tip – Bang away on the keyboard – no worries.
• Slim, Fold-Flat Features – When the show’s over, the slim, fold-flat stand hides itself within the case.
• Interior Rubber Shock Absorbtion – Cushions and protects, like a helmet.
• Reversible Screen-Shield Mode – Pop the case off, flip it, and snap it on the screen – then throw it in your bag and relax.
• Wrist Strap Ready

Despite having an articulated back and rugged looks, it still doesn’t seem to add a lot to the Apple iPad – it still looks like an iPad, not something else – and comes in Black, White (pictured) and Pink. Retails for $69.95, Zero Chroma also has cases for the Apple iPhone 4, iPod Touch and Amazon Kindle.

I seriously could have used this on my last trip!

[ Links: Zero Chroma ]