No two ways about it: I am one hot guy. Not that way, though don’t I wish. It’s because I’m carrying Palm’s new Pre Plus smartphone, which turns me into a walking, talking Wi-Fi hot spot, empowered to allow lesser mortals to bask in my geeky aura. Or at least, to share my phone’s Internet connection.
The original Pre, which debuted last year on Sprint Nextel’s network in the United States, featured a striking “smooth stone” design, an elegant new operating system called webOS and — unlike, say, Google’s more recent Nexus One — didn’t scream “iPhone wannabe.” Its big drawback was the small number of applications available for it.
The new Pre Plus, now available on the much larger Verizon Wireless network, doesn’t solve the app problem, and at $150 on a two-year contract, after rebate, it isn’t cheap. But the new Mobile HotSpot application almost makes up for these drawbacks.
The Pre is more compact, but chunkier than, say, Apple’s iPhone or the Nexus One, which is manufactured by Taoyuan, Taiwan-based HTC Corp. In repose, the screen is all shiny blackness — even more so than the original Pre, whose function button has been replaced by a horizontal stripe across the bottom that is only visible when the screen is in use.
Sliding the screen up reveals a tiny physical keyboard. On the first Pre, I had a lot of trouble typing; the keys were so small I would constantly hit the wrong one. Things got better, but only a little, when I figured out one secret for thick- fingered typists like myself: Use the edge of your fingernail, rather than your finger itself. Palm has made some minimal changes in the keys, but my earlier advice still holds.
Kindle for BlackBerry smartphones
Amazon released a free Kindle for BlackBerry application that makes the online shop’s electronic books available for reading on the Research In Motion smartphones.
“Since the launch of our popular Kindle for iPhone application last year, customers have been asking us to bring a similar experience to the BlackBerry,” said Amazon Kindle vice president Ian. “We are thrilled to make it available.” The application available for download online at amazon.com/kindlebb lets BlackBerry users access an online bookstore with more than 420,000 digital works.
Amazon technology lets readers switch between smartphones, iPod Touch devices, computers, and Kindle electronic tablets without losing their places in digital books.
Amazon said its Kindle books will be synced for reading on Apple iPad tablets set for release in March.
While publishers have been pressuring Amazon to raise prices of digital books, most titles remain priced at 9.99 dollars (US) or less, according to the online retailer.
New Star Trek online game at Atari
Hollywood director J.J. Abrams has gone where man has gone before, with his 2009 “Star Trek” movie blasting the sci-fi franchise back into the spotlight and online, uniting new and older generation fans. Videogame publisher Atari and developer Cryptic Studios hope to capitalize on the $385 million global box office that the Paramount Pictures movie raked in last year with the first massively multiplayer online (MMO) game set in Gene Roddenberry’s science fiction universe that dates back to 1966.
“Star Trek Online” was recently released for PCs, allowing fans from the original TV series as well as the moviegoers who enjoyed Abrams’ reboot, to create a virtual character and explore space, the final frontier. “I think this game has an opportunity to unify the ‘Star Trek’ fans, many of whom really are serious gaming fans, with those who aren’t,” said Zachary Quinto, who played Spock in Abrams’ movie and voices a hologram medical doctor in the game.
“I think it’s great to unify these two groups and give people the opportunity to engage each other and play with each other online and have the experience of the game together.” While Quinto’s character guides players through a tutorial that covers the game, the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy, narrates the online game. “There are a lot of young people who never saw ‘Star Trek’ before who went to see this movie who are now interested in ‘Star Trek,’” said Nimoy. “I think there will be a number of them who will be interested in a video game and a number of them who will be going back to the original episodes to take a look to see what the roots of all this is all about.”
