Sprint may finally have the “hero” device it has been lacking: The EVO 4G, a feature-packed handset that will be the first to run on the company’s 4G WiMax network.

Designed by HTC, EVO runs Google’s (GOOG) Android 2.1 operating system and boasts some killer features: A 4.3-inch touchscreen display, a 1GHz Qualcomm (QCOM) Snapdragon processor, an eight-megapixel camera on the back, a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front (presumably for video chat), support for HD video capture, an FM radio and, of course, 3G/4G capability, which should theoretically support download speeds of more than 10 Mbps, assuming access to WiMax.

A superb feature set–on paper, anyway. Certainly, Sprint’s (S) leadership is convinced they’ve got a game-changer in the EVO: “This is going to be an iconic handset without question,” Sprint’s David Owens told Reuters.

And those who have gotten some early hands-on time with the device seem to agree. Engadget calls it “breathtaking.” Gizmodo was equally impressed: “[the] Evo 4G is the best Android phone out there. It may even be the best phone, period.”

Of course, these are simply first impressions. And it’s important to remember that while EVO specs out quite nicely, one of its biggest selling points, 4G support, involves a network that isn’t yet widely available.

In any event, the EVO seems to be a nice piece of hardware, one that’s likely to raise the table stakes in the mobile market. The smartphone goes on sale sometime this summer for an as yet undisclosed price.

The new Canon EOS-1D Mark IV Digital SLR camera is a high-speed multimedia performance monster with a 16-megapixel Canon CMOS sensor, Dual DIGIC 4 Imaging Processors, and 14-bit A/D data conversion, all at 10 frames-per-second (fps), with the widest ISO range Canon has produced to date. Canon EOS-1D Mark IV also features 1080p Full High-Definition video capture at selectable frame rates packaged in Canon’s most rugged and durable professional camera body.

The Canon EOS-1D Mark IV allows for three video recording resolutions – 1080p Full HD and 720p HD in a 16:9 aspect ratio and Standard Definition (SD) in a 4:3 aspect ratio. The camera will record Full HD at 1920 x 1080 in selectable frame rates of 24p (23.976), 25p, or 30p (29.97); and 720p HD or SD video recording at either 50p or 60p (59.94). SD video can be recorded in either NTSC or PAL standards. Sound is recorded either through the internal monaural microphone or via optional external microphones connected to the stereo microphone input. The camera also provides an in-camera video editing function.

The new EOS-1D Mark IV Digital SLR camera features Canon’s most advanced Autofocus system to date. It is equipped with a newly developed 45-point AF sensor featuring 39 high-precision cross-type AF points, and an all new AI Servo II AF mode that gives still photographers the power and performance to track and focus a fast-moving subject at speeds up to 10 frames per second.

The heart of the EOS-1D Mark IV camera’s outstanding image quality is a newly developed 16.1-Megapixel CMOS sensor featuring Canon’s latest and most advanced proprietary technologies. These technologies include improved photodiode construction to enhance dynamic range and gapless microlenses that are positioned closer to the photodiodes for improved light gathering efficiency.

With 60 percent more pixels than the EOS-1D Mark III, the EOS-1D Mark IV Digital SLR employs Dual DIGIC 4 Image Processors with approximately six times the processing power of DIGIC III for full 14-bit A/D conversion at 10 fps. High-speed continuous shooting up to 121 Large JPEGs is possible using a UDMA CF card.

The body covers and internal chassis, including the mirror box, are constructed with magnesium-alloy, one of the strongest and rigid metals available for its weight. For added strength, the lens mount is constructed with stainless steel.

The Canon 1D Mark IV’s body, chassis and lens mount are completely weather-resistant and 76 gaskets and seals surround all buttons and seams.

The Canon EOS-1D Mark IV Digital SLR camera is scheduled to be delivered in late December, and will be sold in a body-only configuration at an estimated retail price of $4,999.00.

Here’s a quick look  what you need to know about the new digital SLR:

• New 45-point Area AF sensor including 39 cross-type AF points with f/2.8 support plus new AI Servo II AF with improved algorithm.
• ISO 100 – 12800 (expandable to L: 50, H1: 25600, H2: 51200, H3: 102400) for shooting from bright to dim light with low noise levels.
• EOS HD movie capture with manual exposure control and multiple frame rates (1080: 30p (29.97) / 24p (23.976) / 25p, 720: 60p (59.94) / 50p, 480: 60p (59.94) / 50p).
• 16.1 Megapixel APS-H CMOS sensor and Dual DIGIC 4 Image Processors for high image quality and speed – Dual DIGIC 4 processors provide six times the processing power of DIGIC III for full 14 bit A/D conversion at 10fps
• 10.0 fps continuous shooting up to 121 Large JPEGS or 28 RAW using a UDMA CF card.
• 3.0-inch ClearView II LCD monitor, 160° viewing angle, 920,000-dot VGA, reflection resistance with multi coating and high-transparency materials for bright and clear viewing.
• Magnesium alloy body with shutter durability up to 300,000 cycles and exclusive dust- and weather-resistance.
• Fully compatible with over 50 EF lenses and a wide range of EOS System accessories.
• 60 percent more pixels than EOS-1D Mark III
• Peripheral Illumination Correction function corrects darkening that can occur in the corners of images with most lenses when used at their largest apertures
• Record on CF Type I and II, SD/SDHC memory cards, UDMA Mode 6 CF cards and/or external media

It may seem like overkill at this point, but Barnes & Noble is releasing their own e-book reader today: the Nook, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Although an official event and annoucement is scheduled for later today, most of the important information has already been leaked. Like Spring Design’s Alex, it will run on Google Android OS. While it’s roughly the same price as Amazon’s Kindle, it’s not really cheap, with a reported price tag of $259. But with some extra assets like a color touchscreen and e-book lending abilities, I find it a bit more of a deal. Amazon should start planning a major holiday bargain if they want to continue their control of the e-book reader market this winter.

The Wall Street Journal say they’ve seen a full page ad for the Barnes and Noble Nook eReader and it’s loaded -

1. Allows lending – Lend eBooks to friends. This is the first confirmation. WSJ write -
   

   Details of the reader appear in a full-page advertisement viewed by The Wall Street Journal in the New York Times Book Review section dated Sunday, Oct. 25. The advertisement says the Nook will enable its owners to “Lend eBooks to friends.”

2. Color touchscreen. By this they mean the screen below the eInk screen.
3. $259 price to match the Kindle price. That is a BIG detail to ferret out.
4. The name is Nook – Athena was so much better  .
5. Wireless downloads.
6. There is a separate website called nook.com – although it’s not up yet. WSJ write -
   

   The New York Times Book Review ad urges readers to “experience nook at your local Barnes & Noble or at nook.com.”

Details are supposedly from an October 25th New York Times advertisement.

Here is what Nook means (from Kindle dictionary) -

a corner or recess, especially one offering seclusion or security: the nook beside the fire.

the nook beside the fire – You cannot make this stuff up. Amazon kindles a fire and B&N offers you security by the fire.

Revo has outed the Domino D3, a new DAB radio that combines a whole range of radio formats with iPod connectivity, wireless streaming capabilities and Last.fm access for a whole myriad of music.

With a contemporary design, the Domino D3 features a joystick for users to navigate their way around the radio’s features, and an OLED display for showing off exactly what you’re listening to.

On the Domino D3, you’ll be able to tune in to DAB, DAB+ and internet radio, as well as good old FM with RDS, and you’ll also be able to wirelessly stream music from any PC or MAC.

There’s also an integrated iPod dock which will also work with you iPhone, and similarly to the Revo Ikon, you’ll also be able to get access to Last.fm playlists – or sign in to your profile to tailor make your own.

To kick you off you’ll get a 30 day free trial to Last.fm, but if you get hooked, it’s £3 per month to keep the service going.

The D3 is actually part of a larger Domino line-up, packing into it all the goodness of the two models below it.

They are the D1, packing DAB/DAB+ and iPod & iPhone docking, and the D2 offering audio streaming, FM radio, iPod & iPhone docking and Last.fm access.

If you want it all, the Domino D3 will set you back £169.95, while the D1 and D2 will be priced at £129.95 and £149.95 respectively, and all will be available from 1 November.

Microsoft is launching the first smartphones packing Windows Mobile today, and has shared a few details on the new OS ahead of its full announcement.

With a cleaned up, easier-to-use interface, WinMo 6.5 promises better browsing capabilities and easy access to services such as Windows Live, Bing, Mobile Office Communicator and Microsoft Online Services such as Exchange and Sharepoint.

Microsoft has also shared more details on the two new service platforms we’d heard would launch with the OS – My Phone and Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

The former will allow you to back up and manage all your content including photos, apps, contacts and text messages on you PC, and will also offer a premium package some time soon that will help you relocate your phone if lost.

This will include showing the phone’s location on a map, remotely locking it, posting an “if found” message to the screen and setting off a loud ring – just in case you’ve just lost it down the side of the sofa.

Windows Marketplace for Mobile on the other hand is Microsoft’s crack at an app store with a current choice of over 200 mobile apps for business and pleasure.

We knew it would be coming this month, but now with Nokia has ‘fessed up as to when we can expect to see the Nokia N97 Mini in the shops.

If you’ve been waiting to get your hands on the smaller handset, Nokia has confirmed via its Flagship Store Twitter feed that we’ll be able to pick it up from 23 October.

This means Nokia’s central London Regent Street store will be getting the phone on this date, with other stores to get it in the days following.

As for how much it’s going to set you back, Nokia has the price listed as £429, but Vodafone, who leaked the handset earlier this year, has no such details as yet.

As its name suggests, the N97 Mini is a smaller version of this year’s N97, dropping 3 inches from its screen size down to 3.2, and cutting internal storage from 32GB to 8GB.

What do you think to the smaller N97 Mini – is it worth it? Let us know what you think below

TomTom has launched a new sat nav that drops a few of the more advanced TomTom features in exchange for a lower price tag. With a simplified menu, the TomTom Start is aimed at motorists just looking for a bit of a hand getting from A to B as quickly as possible. This means you’ll get the TomTom IQ Routes which will judge the fastest way to get to your destination, while Map Share will allow users to share map corrections so you never get stuck up the wrong street.

This does mean users won’t get the advanced handiness of LIVE services such as traffic updates, but you will still get safety camera alerts and all the Points of Interests already pre-installed on the device.

However, the user interface is not the only thing that’s been simplified on the TomTom Start – the design is clean and simple as well, with only one button. 

Made up mostly of its 3.5-inch screen, the Start is available in a choice of black or white, with six different StartSkins colours available separately to customise it with if you so wish.

The new addition to the TomTom family will cost you £119 for UK maps, or £139 for a European map, while the StartSkins will cost £14.99 each.

We’ll be getting hands on with it later on so keep it locked for some hands on snaps later on.

So we knew it was coming, and now the HTC HD2 has been officially outed and confirmed to go on sale later this month.

Although it packs Windows Mobile 6.5, the HD2 benefits from the rather lovely HTC Sense skin we’ve seen on the Android-loving Hero, bringing multi-touch to the a Windows Mobile phone for the first time.

This means you can zoom in on images and resize websites by simply pinching your fingers, as you would on the iPhone.

The high-res 4.3-inch touchscreen ensures accurate typing and easier web browsin, while the Qualcomm 1Ghz Snapdragon processor under the hood will improve the speed of of the phone, including apps, videos and games.

With HTC Sense you are able to customise your homepage with different widgets, such as a Windows-based version of its Twitter application HTC Peep, as well as download apps from Windows Marketplace.

There’s also the feature that bundles all of your contact with one person into a single contact view, so you can see calls, texts, Facebook status updates and emails in one glance. You’re also able to switch between an email conversation to a phone call in a jiffy by simply pressing the call button.

As for other specs, you can expect a 5 megapixel camera, 3.5mm jack, 3G and Wifi, as well as an optional car kit that’ll turn your HD2 in to your very own sat nav.

This is very possibly one of the most promising Windows Mobile phones yet. Keep your eyes peeled for a hands on video very shortly, and let us know what you think to it below.

It seems O2 is throwing its toys out of the iPhone pram, and is sitting on the fence as to whether it will provide users with iPhone unlock codes to move to other networks.

Previously the network had refused to unlock handsets based on the grounds that it had an exclusive deal with Apple. Now that deal has come to an end, it seems O2 isn’t too sure if it wants to allow its iPhone users to jump ship.Speaking to The Register, O2 said: “We did not offer unlocking at the end of a customer’s iPhone contract as we had the exclusive contract for the iPhone in the UK. 

“Obviously, that situation has changed and we are currently working through what will happen.”

If O2 decides to stick to its guns, you’ll be forced to go down the unofficial unlocking route, or be stuck with a phone locked to the O2 network. We know the route we’d be likely to take. 

What do you think to this? Does O2 have a write to keep its iPhones locked? Let us know below

Joby has outed a new addition to its Gorillapod line of camera tripods for the iPhone, tipping its hat to the importance that the iPhone has played in amateur photography and movie making.

Following the launch of the iPhone 3G S, YouTube saw an increase in uploads of 400%, and all three models of the iPhone combined make up for the second most popular camera that photo uploads to Flickr come from.

It is no doubt because of stats like this made Joby extend its original Gorillamobile offering that fits onto cameras and handhelds, to introduce the Gorillamobile for 3G and 3G S.

As well as the flexible, wrappable legs that Gorillapods are known for, there is also a case for the iPhone that not only connects it to the tripod, but also provides protection for your phone as well.

As an iPhone holder, the Gorillamobile Gorillapod is a handy device to have. The gorillapod is normally associated with holding up digital cameras and attaching them to fences. The gorillamobile tripod is designed to hold your iPhone in various places. It has 3 flexible legs which can be position to stand or wrap around various objects.

Three types of quick-release adapters are available for the iPhone holder. The first is a standard screw thread that is compatible with digital cameras. The second is a suction cup designed for a temporary hold while the third method uses an adhesive clip which leaves no residue when removed.

The legs on the tripod have over two dozen joints making it one of the most unique tripods you will use. The feet are rubberised making it non slip when placed on surfaces. Overall a very handy iPhone Holder that can be used for more than just propping up your iPhone.

PREVIEW
Archos has long been king of the PMP, and while Apple drags its feet over an internet tablet, Archos has jumped straight in with a sleek, Android-toting device putting web, media and TV in the palm of your hand.

Full-width web browsing
The extra real-estate afforded by the 4.8in 800×480-pixel screen means you can surf the web via Wi-Fi using the Android browser at full width, so there’s no annoying zooming in and out. If Wi-Fi is a no-go, you can tether the Tablet to a compatible 3.5G mobile to keep you connected.Unlike the iPhone there’s also support for Flash, and the Android OS comes with the usual email application for supported POP3 and IMAP addresses. Existing contacts can be imported in the form of vCards from your mobile phone, PC or Mac. The onscreen keyboard is sizable, so tapping out missives should be comfortable enough.

Convergent thinking
Convergence is the name of the game for Archos, and as you’d expect, AV is well-catered for. With storage capacities available up to a humungous 500GB, there’s plenty of room to keep it well-stocked with music, photos and video.

Video is where the Archos 5 expects to do big business, and it’s capable of handling pretty much any format you chuck at it. Better still, it can play 720p high-def footage, too – streamed from your PC if you so desire.

To make the most of the HD capabilities you’ll have to invest in the optional HDMI docking station, remote control and Bluetooth keyboard. This transforms your little Archos into a powerful media PC, outputting its contents to your telly at up to 720p so you can give your eyes a rest and enjoy the big screen for a change.

For a little fella the Archos 5 packs in all the convergence you could ask for, and with a host of storage capacities available in both solid-state and hard drive there should be something to fit every need and pocket.

Pros HD video support. Android OS. Customisable homescreen and app store

Cons HDMI dock not included

There have been rumours for a while now, but this morning it became official that O2 has lost its exclusivity deal to sell the iPhone with news that Orange will also be selling Apple’s handset before the year is out.
It had previously been suggested that Orange would just be selling the 3G, and that O2 would retain exclusivity on the 3G S. However, Orange has confirmed it will be selling both handsets later this year.Orange came out on top of Ofcom’s 3G investigation earlier this year where O2 didn’t do so well, so this is good news for those who have avoided the iPhone because of O2’s less than reliable service in recent months.

No dates, prices or tariff information has been announced, but a pre-registration channel for customers to register their interest has been launched. http://www.orange.co.uk/iPhone . 

Will you be going for the iPhone on Orange? Let us know below

The battle between Apple and Palm over access to iTunes has been a long standing one, but now Apple has been given the green light to block the Pre from using iTunes.

Palm’s bragging about the Pre’s compatibility with Apple’s software brought about an update that once more blocked the phone from accessing it.

A PalmOS update returned iTunes compatibility, but Palm still filed a complaint against Apple with the USB Implementers Forum, the standard for USB connections. It claimed Apple was “restraining trade” by blocking access its software to all other devices.

However, the group saw it differently – saying the Pre’s ability to mask itself as an iPod in order to work with iTunes was actually in violation to the group’s membership agreement, and has given the company seven days to respond to his “potential violation”.

A spokesperson for the group said: “Under the Policy, Palm may only use the single Vendor ID issued to Palm for Palm’s usage. Usage of any other company’s Vendor ID is specifically precluded.”

We’ll have to see how this tiff works itself out – but what do you think? Is Apple right to block its software to devices?

Griffin’s venerable iPod and iPhone FM transmitter has just been updated and it’s really quite snazzy. The new Griffin iTrip is the first iPod/iPhone accessory with its own iPhone app to control it. 
Buy the Griffin iTrip and install the iTrip Controller app on an iPhone or iPod Touch with iPhone OS 3.0 and you’ll be able to control the device straight from the screen.

The iTrip Controller app gives you access to tuning controls, station scanning and frequency selection. 

The Griffin iTrip will sling audio to any nearby FM radio and stick track and artist information on the display if they’re RDS compatible. The LCD display is backlit and you can set 3 presets if you find some particularly clear frequencies. 

The Griffin iTrip is out in October for £39.99 and the iTrip Controller is available in the iTunes App Store for free now.

We’d already heard the rumours of when we could expect it, but now O2 has confirmed both pricing and an October release date for the long-awaited Palm Pre.

Previously touted as coming “in time for Christmas”, O2 has now announced it’ll be thankfully quite a bit before, hitting shelves on 16 October exclusive to the network.Available direct from O2, or through Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U, the Palm Pre will be free to customers on the sole £34.26 per month 24-month contract, but 18-month customers will have to take on a monthly tariff of £44.05 or £73.41 to get the Pre for nada.

In terms of what this will get you – 24 month customers will be stuck with 600 minutes and 500 texts, while 18 monthers will get either 1,200 or 3,000 minutes and the same 500 texts with the £44.05 and £73.41 tariffs respectively.

It’s worth nothing that you will be able to get on the Pre on cheaper 18-month tariffs of £29.38 or £34.26 per month, but you’ll have to shell out £96.89 for the phone up front.

Similarly to the iPhone tariffs, all data will be free no matter which you of the above opt for, with access over the O2 HDSPA network and unlimited access to 7,500 Wifi hotspots through The Cloud and BT Openzone.

Finally, if you want to buy in to the Palm Pre’s rather innovative Touchstone Charging Dock for connectionless charging of the phone,that will also be available and sold separately for £44.11.

So there you have it – will you be buying a Pre come October?