This Week in Reviews [April 1-5]

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This Week in Reviews [April 16-20]

It’s that time again — time for This Week in Reviews. This week we looked at the Swann HD PenCam, a video camera built in to a pen (just like in the spy movies); Sprint’s brand-new 4G smartphone, the LG Viper; two laptops from Toshiba (the budget Satellite C655-S5542 and the sleeker Portege R835-P88); a secure portable hard drive from Lenovo; the ultra-slim, ultra-sexy HTC One S from T-Mobile.

Unless you're an international spy or an amateur sleuth, you'd be forgiven if you didn't know where to turn in picking out the perfect spy cam. Security-themed accessories maker Swann has a new device to assist you in those undercover missions: the $99.99 HD PenCam. In addition to its function as a writing tool, this USB-rechargeable gadget records video in 720p and holds up to 16GB of footage and still photos via microSD. We were impressed with the video and audio quality, but is the HD PenCam stealthy enough for your next covert op?

Read Our Swann HD PenCam Review

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Verizon to Charge $30 for New Phone Upgrades Starting April 22

Verizon Wireless has announced that starting April 22, customers will be charged a $30 mobile device upgrade fee. The U.S. carrier’s reason for implementing the fee is supposedly to “continue to provide customers with the level of service and support they have come to expect which includes Wireless Workshops, online educational tools, and consultations with experts who provide advice and guidance on devices that are more sophisticated than ever.”

It would appear that the new policy would apply to 3G and 4G tablets as well, since the fee covers “all mobile devices.”

Prior to this move, Verizon had been the only carrier not to charge its customers with an upgrade fee. Both AT&T and Sprint charge $36 to upgrade to a new device on contract, while T-Mobile charges customers $18 to upgrade.

via GigaOm

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This Week in Reviews [April 2-6]

It’s the weekend, and you know what time it is — time for the Week in Reviews! This week we reviewed an official Photoshop Touch app for the iPad, a board game for your iPad, a Thunderbolt adapter for Seagate GoFlex portable hard drives, the LG Marquee Android smartphone from Boost Mobile, the Nokia Lumia 900, the flagship Windows Phone, the affordable LG Lucid, and two iOS apps.

Early forecasters who opined that the iPad would only ever be used as a content consumption device have one more reason to eat crow. The Grand Poobah of desktop image editing, Adobe Photoshop, has released a tablet-focused version of its software--and the app is an impressive content creation tool indeed. While (expectedly) not as fully featured as its desktop counterpart, Photoshop Touch packs a lot more functionality than other apps in its category. But at $10, Adobe's Photoshop Touch app costs $5 more than Snapseed and Apple's own iPhoto. Is it worth the extra money?

Read Our Adobe Photoshop Touch Review

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Nokia Lumia 900 Launching at AT&T on April 8, Going for $100

AT&T told CNET that it will begin selling the Nokia Lumia 900 on April 8th, the site reports. The time-to-market date isn’t the only news here; the phone will be sold for an affordable $99.99 (with a two-year contract), and it will run on AT&T’s 4G LTE network.

With the launch of the Lumia 900, Nokia is clearly making a push for Windows Phone 7, which hasn’t yet made a significant dent in Android or iOS’ smartphone supremacy here in the states. In case you missed our hands-on with the Lumia 900 in January, here’s what you need to know: It sports a 4.3-inch Clear Black AMOLED display, a 1.4-GHz Qualcomm processor and some sharp-shooting cameras (including an 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss lens). Check out the Lumia 900 on video below.

via CNET

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Sprint and HTC Collaboration Event April 4th, HTC One X on Way?

Sprint and HTC sent out invitations today for an April 4th press event the two say will show off their, “latest collaboration.” Now what could these two be announcing that warrants its own press conference? Well, according to TechnoBuffalo, which cites a, “reliable Sprint source, the event will serve as the big unveiling for Sprint’s version of the much anticipated HTC One X. It could be called the “Jet,” according to s4gru, and possibly launch June 10th.

If the rumors are true, then the One X could launch in June, which is right about the time Sprint is expected to flip the switch on its 4G LTE network. An AT&T version of the phone has already been announced, but instead of using Nvidia’s hulking quad-core Tegra 3 processor, that phone will instead ship with a dual-core Snapdragon chip.

We spent some hands-on time with the One X at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and were blown away. The 4.7-inch phone’s 1280 x 720 Super LCD 2 display was a sight to behold. On top of its gorgeous display, the Android 4.0-powered One X packs Beats Audio, as well as HTC’s Sense 4.

But the real reason to get excited about the One X is the freakishly fast 0.7-second Image Sense camera. HTC equipped the phone with a dedicated camera co-processor, allowing it to snap pictures in an instant. Intel’s Atom Z2460-powered smartphone can pop off 10 pictures in the same 0.7-seconds, but it’s not close to shipping.

We’ll keep you updated on Sprint and HTC’s announcement when it happens early next month.

via TechnoBuffalo

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ASUS Shows Off PadFone: Phone, Tablet, Netbook Combo Coming In April

After nearly a year’s worth of anticipation, and several early showings, ASUS at last showed off the final version of its PadFone. The device combines the power of a phone, tablet and netbook in one product. At its heart the PadFone is a 4.3-inch smartphone powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon S4 1.5-Ghz dual-core processor. The Android Ice Cream Sandwich device is available with 16GB/32GB/64GB of memory and 1GB of RAM.

Upfront the phone features a Super AMOLEDqHD display with a 960 x 540 resolution. Seated above the display is the PadFone’s front-facing camera, a standard VGA model, and opposite that, on the rear of the device, is its 8-megapixel rear-facing camera. ASUS says the PadFone will initially launch as an HSPA+ model, however, an LTE version is due out in Q3 2012.

Pop the Padfone into the PadFone Station and the phone turns into a 10.1-inch tablet. ASUS touts its DynamicDisplay technology as the force behind the way the phone display can be seamlessly transferred to the tablet’s 1280 x 1000 display. The PadFone Station isn’t just a larger display either. It also includes a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, as well as microUSB and microHDMI ports.

The PadFone Station is also available with an optional keyboard dock that turns the entire unit into a 10.1-inch netbook. By itself the PadFone weighs 4.6 ounces and measures just 5 x 2.6 x 0.4 inches. The PadFone Station ups that further, weighing 1.6 pounds and measuring 10.7 x 7 x 0.5 inches.

Rounding out the package is an ASUS’s new PadFone Stylus Headset, a Bluetooth stylus that also doubles as a receiver for the PadFone. So if you are using the unit as a tablet or netbook, and get a phone call you can use the stylus to answer you call, rather than taking the entire setup apart.

Stay tuned for our full hands on of the PadFone.

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