Smart-phone shoppers who have been waiting for a cheaper iPhone that runs on faster cell networks might want to take the plunge on the iconic device’s latest iteration, but service costs have risen and battery life has dropped.
In the exciting new category of modern hand-held computers — devices that fit in your pocket but are used more like a laptop than a traditional phone — there has so far been only one serious option. But that will all change on Oct. 22, when T-Mobile and Google bring out the G1, the first hand-held computer that’s in the same class as Apple’s iPhone.
Walt reviews the hotly anticipated BlackBerry Storm, the first BlackBerry model without a physical keyboard. Typing and navigation require tapping on glass, just as users do on the iPhone. Verizon will be selling the Storm for $250 with a two-year contract, though a $50 mail-in rebate can bring the price down close to the $199 that Apple charges for the base model of the iPhone.
Digital-picture frames have started to take off as a way for people to show off their stashes of digital photos in rotating slide shows. A growing number of frames even connect to wireless home networks so they can easily be refreshed with photos stored online and on PCs.
Apple’s new iPhone 3G S and OS 3.0 offer plenty of new features. But the software may be enough of a boost to keep many users from buying the new model, Walt Mossberg writes.
Edited by Walt and written by Katie Boehret, this is a guide to gadgets, web services and other consumer technologies.
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