Apple starts selling unlocked and contract-free iPhone 4S

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Summary: Apple is finally selling unlocked versions of the iPhone 4S — with a few caveats.

Consumers looking to pick up the iPhone 4S without a two-year contract finally have the news they’ve been waiting for. Apple has begun selling the unlocked, contract-free versions of its latest device, offering owners the freedom from two-year contracts.

That freedom, however, comes at a price. The unlocked iPhone 4S is only compatible with GSM networks like AT&T’s own, and won’t work with CDMA networks like the ones used by Verizon and Sprint. This is good news for regular travelers (not to mention T-Mobile subscribers), who can swtich networks simply by swapping out the device’s micro-SIM card.

Without a carrier subsidy, prices for the unlocked versions of the iPhone 4S are predictably high. $650 will get you the 16GB model, $750 for the 32GB, and $850 for the 64GB version of the phone. Apple estimates that the devices will ship between one and two weeks from time of order.

[Apple]

Ricardo Bilton writes for ZDNet's The ToyBox. His work has appeared in The Japan Times, The New York Observer, and The International Business Times, among other publications.

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Nook Simple Touch with 'no annoying ads' to drop to $99

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Summary: Leaked documents suggest Barnes & Noble could be cutting the Nook Simple Touch’s price to match the ad-supported Amazon Kindle Touch next week.

It looks like Barnes and Noble will not only be unveiling the Nook Tablet on Monday, but also dropping the price of its Nook Simple Touch to $99, as well as releasing an update (version 1.1) for the e-reader. According to leaked Nook documents obtained by Engadget and The Digital Reader, the update will bring about “25% faster page turns,” a 2-month battery life, and “no annoying ads.”

Is a price cut for the Nook Simple Touch coming next week? Image from Engadget

At $99 and with no ads, the Nook e-reader is definitely not bowing down to the new, ad-supported $99 Kindle Touch ($139 for the ad-free variant). And it looks like the Nook Color will be discounted to $199 and be given a software update that brings the likes of Hulu Plus and Pandora to the last-gen device.

A comparison of all Nook devices. Image from Engadget

But keep in mind this information has not been confirmed by B&N yet so this is all just speculation at the moment. Regardless of the specs and price, deciding between the B&N and Amazon device will come down to the type of content you consume — do you usually read e-books in ePUB format from your public library, or do you tend to purchase new e-books from Amazon?

One way or another, we will find out just what B&N will really do with its Nook lineup next week. Tune into ZDNet’s coverage of the press event on November 7!

[Source: Engadget, The Digital Reader]

Updated: Mentioned the Nook Color’s price drop as detailed in the specs comparison chart.

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Gloria Sin is a freelance journalist based in New York City.

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With the Rezound, will HTC's $300 million Beats Audio gamble pay off?

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Summary: HTC has invested over $300 million in its Beats Audio efforts. But will the project ever bear fruit?

When HTC announced that was buying a majority stake in Beats Electronics for $300 million back in August, most were, understandably, confused. It seemed a dubious partnership, fueled not by any real vision, but rather by HTC’s desire to become an Apple-esque technology/lifestyle brand. And what better way to accomplish that than via Beats Audio, which had become successful for improving the relationships people had with music, their most personal of lifestyle choices?

But from a marketing perspective, the move made a whole lot of sense. Beats Audio has never been about just headphones and technology. The Beats Audio brand is infused with a certain amount of coolness and price-induced exclusivity. It’s hip, it’s music-focused, and though Dr. Dre himself isn’t very young anymore, the prime consumers of Beats Audio devices are young people with (hopefully) a lot of cash to burn.

Likewise, Beats Audio headphones are very distinctive, and emerged in full force at a time where nearly everyone had white earbuds plugged into their ears. So it was, from the beginning, a fashion statement, a literal and metaphorical self-statement that “I am different. I appreciate music on a higher level.”

That last bit resonates strongly with Jimmy Iovine, the music executive, producer, and founder of Beats Audio. Iovine laid out a bit of the Beats Audio philosophy during the unveiling of the HTC Rezound on Thursday. The Beats Audio project, Iovine said, emerged out of frustration with “the destruction and degradation of sound caused by the digital revolution.”

Indeed, the digital revolution did more than just degrade the sound quality of music: It unseated a whole industry, placing free music on countless hard drives and catching music executives with their pants at their ankles. They had no idea what was going on. And they needed technology companies to help them out, which companies like Apple did in a big, big way.

Enter Jimmy Iovine. Iovine realized that the best way to improve the music industry’s stakes was to reverse that relationship: Technology companies had to need the music industry.

That’s the the rationale behind Beats Audio, which Iovine says brings the music industry into the technology world. That relationship has gone a lot further with deals with companies like HP and HTC, which have more closely combined the worlds of technology, music, and mobile.

And that’s a good thing for music. While some music producers have argued that the audio profiles of Beats Audio headphones are far from accurate, the devices certainly do a better job than the run-of-the-mill earbuds phones and MP3 players tend to be packaged with.

And for that Iovine and HTC deserve some credit: Alerting consumers to the sad reality of their personal sound technology makes them more likely to improve it. That, in the end, can only result in people enjoying their listening experience more and subsequently investing more money in it. And that, undoubtedly, will be music to record executives’ ears.

That’s good news for HTC as well. In HTC, mobile and music have found an interesting marriage. As devices like the Rhyme have shown, becoming a lifestyle brand is clearly the company’s goal. While attaching itself to the Beats brand is a risky investment, its very likely that the momentum will be in HTC’s favor, especially if the Rezound does as well in North America as the Sensation XE and XL have done abroad.

Ricardo Bilton writes for ZDNet's The ToyBox. His work has appeared in The Japan Times, The New York Observer, and The International Business Times, among other publications.

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Leaked photo of BlackBerry 'London' with BBX OS

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Summary: Could this be the first BlackBerry smartphone running BBX, the fusion platform combining the best of the PlayBook’s QNX and BB OS?

The Verge is reporting that Research In Motion’s first BBX smartphone — a fusion of the BB OS and the PlayBook’s QNX platform — could be the BlackBerry “London” (pictured below).

Although this new BB won’t be rolling out until June 2012, specs that are already floating around on the Interwebs about the London this morning:

Processor: TI OMAP dual-core CPU clocked to 1.5GHzRAM: 1GBStorage: 16GBCameras: 8-megapixel rear camera; 2-megapixel front-facing camera

Like the Nokia N9, the London is all touchscreen with no physical buttons on the front. Its angled corners actually remind me of the Motorola Photon 4G (I did a double-take on the branding), but no doubt follows the lineage of the Porsche-designed BlackBerry P9981 that The Verge noted. The tech site’s source even went so far to say the new BB will be “thinner than the iPhone 4? and “roughly the same size as a Galaxy S II.”

Now, it’s not clear whether this is just the photo of a concept phone that will never make it to market or just a rendering of what the London may look like, but it’s interesting to get a preview of BBX and possibly a new BB form factor nonetheless. I’m glad to see RIM is keeping the thumbnail UI design from QNX/PlayBook because that’s what made the tablet easier to navigate than its Android competitors. But I’m surprised RIM would doing away with its famous QWERTY keypad because that, more than BBM, is why users continue to carry a BB. Perhaps this model is targeted at consumers tired of a shrunken touchscreen, versus business professionals who need BB for work?

Is BBX and more design-conscious handsets what RIM need to compete with Windows and Nokia for the third spot in the smartphone market? Give us your two cents below.

[Source: The Verge, Engadget]

Gloria Sin is a freelance journalist based in New York City.

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T-Mobile customers get the gift of free Google Music tracks

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Summary: T’is the season for sharing music for T-Mobile customers with Android devices and Google Music, from now till the end of 2011.

Now that Google Music is live, T-Mobile Android customers will be getting exclusive and free access to full-length select songs via Google Music, every week until the end of the year.

As long as they have a smartphone running at least Android 2.2 (Froyo), T-Mobile customers will be able to find the T-Mobile Free Tracks (pictured right) within the Google Music app, and download the featured artists’ music for free in the remaining weeks in 2011. This week, they can download some new tunes from Drake and Maroon 5.

According to the T-Mobile Blog announcing the carrier’s partnership with Google Music, its customers will soon be able to charge impulsive song purchases to their monthly phone bills too. That will just make it a little too convenient for finger-tapping users to add to their music collection, but that’s precisely the idea.

While I doubt the promise of several free songs would convince anyone to switch carriers (how much could a few songs cost?), it is a nice perk for current T-Mobile customers to give Google Music a whirl. Non-T-Mobile customers take heart: you can still access these free songs as long as your T-Mobile friend shares his loot on Google+ (assuming you’re a part of his “circle”), you’ll be able to download the entire track via the social network. T’is the season for sharing, after all.

[Source: T-Mobile's Blog]

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Gloria Sin is a freelance journalist based in New York City.

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RIM drops Blackberry PlayBook to $199 for "limited time"

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Summary: Confirming previous rumors, RIM is dropping the price of the PlayBook to $199.

RIM’s perpetually struggling PlayBook tablet may have a lifeline this holiday season.

Confirming rumors, RIM announced today that it plans to drop the price of the 16GB PlayBook to $199. The drop, however, isn’t a permanent one, and is limited to retailers Best Buy, Wireless Giant, Staples, OfficeMax, Office Depot, Radio Shack and Wal-Mart.

With the price drop, the PlayBook finds itself at the same price as Amazon’s Kindle Fire, which is a big deal. The Kindle Fire’s price is considered one of its strongest assets, and RIM may steal away some potential buyers of Amazon’s tablet with the PlayBook’s almost impulse buy-worthy price.

But the price drop is bad news for the PlayBook, whose price has dropped a full $300 since its release earlier this year. While RIM says that PlayBook’s new price is only a temporary one, it would come as a big surprise if RIM didn’t cut its losses make the price drop stick.

Ricardo Bilton writes for ZDNet's The ToyBox. His work has appeared in The Japan Times, The New York Observer, and The International Business Times, among other publications.

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Best 5 Black Friday 2011 tablet and e-reader finds

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Summary: You won’t regret buying an Asus Transformer, BlackBerry PlayBook, Toshiba Thrive, HP TouchPad or Barnes & Noble’s Nook Simple Touch Limited Edition this Black Friday.

Let’s face it: you’re shopping for an e-reader or a tablet on Black Friday because you want to get the best bang for your buck and are willing to forgo the latest specs and OS for the savings. You’re simply not going to find something as recently released as the Amazon Kindle Fire on sale on November 25 — at the most you may get a gift card to lessen the sting of paying regular price for the device, but that’s hardly worth fighting Black Friday crowds for. Thankfully, there are better deals out there than mere gift cards, which is why these five e-reader and tablet deals deserve your time and money this Black Friday.

10.1? Asus Eee Pad Transformer 16GB $249.99; $349.98 with Keyboard Dock

With the next-gen quad-core Asus Transformer Prime tablet due in stores any time soon, the current Transformer (TF101) is suddenly quite the steal this Black Friday. Best Buy is pricing the Transformer at just $249.99 or $349.99 with the optional dock, which is basically the same price as the Toshiba Thrive (see below) but with the added functionality of a laptop. As a stand-alone tablet, the 10.1-inch Transformer has a textured back that is less prone to slipping and fingerprints, a micro-SD slot and micro-HDMI port on-board, and runs Android Honeycomb with Flash support. When combined with the keyboard dock, the device gains about 6-7 hours of battery life, 2 USB ports, 1 SD slot and of course physical keys for extensive typing.

7? BlackBerry PlayBook 16GB for $199

Considering the Amazon Kindle Fire only offers 8GB of on-board storage, 512 MB RAM, lacks Bluetooth and cameras, the 7-inch BlackBerry PlayBook makes up for all the Fire’s hardware shortcomings without adding to the pricetag (at least for the 16GB version). For $199, you get 16GB of storage, a great looking and multitasking OS in QNX, a micro-HDMI-out, video chats with a 3-megapixel camera, and can pair your BlackBerry phone to a larger 7? screen. Native BBM email support is coming in the February 2012 update so critics’ last gripe with the tablet should finally be put to rest. Both Best Buy and Staples are marking down their PlayBooks this Black Friday so keep an eye out for it (Staples has the 32GB and 64GB variants for $249 and $399 respectively.)

10.1? Toshiba Thrive Tablet for $349.98

Speaking of Staples, it is also shaving $50 off the 10.1-inch Toshiba Thrive (pictured above), a sleeper hit of a tablet for those looking for more native ports and connectors on their slates that will fit right in with their current tech set-up. Although this model only has 16GB of internal storage, it comes with a  full-size SD slot, USB and HDMI ports and has a removable battery so you can swap in a fresh one when you can’t plug into a socket. The Thrive also runs Honeycomb, which means it has a robust app store out-of-box. While it’s not the cheapest Black Friday tablet out there, it also means you’re not buying into a dead/dying system or an outdated model. (Toshiba’s most recent launch was a 7-incher.)

9.7? HP TouchPad 32GB for $229.99 with accessories $149 with HP Computer Purchase

Updated @ 11:14PM PST: Tipped by @Peter Perry, CompUSA is selling just the 32GB TouchPad (no need to buy a HP computer) but comes with accessories for $229.99. Not only will you be able to bring home one of the few remaining TouchPads around, you’ll also get a Belkin Tablet Desktop Stand, Belkin Tablet Sleeve and a pair of Creative Labs Wireless Bluetooth Speakers. This sale starts at 5:00AM PST in stores only so you want to start lining up now.

HP may be out of all TouchPads, but a couple of retailers like Staples and hhgregg are enticing shoppers this Black Friday with their remaining 32GB units for $149.99 — but only if you buy a HP computer as well. This may make sense if you’re shopping for a laptop or desktop this year and want to gift the TouchPad or vice versa. I personally find all the derision directed at webOS and the increasingly rare TouchPad unwarranted because the device works just fine for basic consumption needs (email, web surfing, music). It sure beats a similarly priced Pandigital or generic-brand me-too tablets that seem to fill Black Friday circulars.

Barnes & Noble’s 6? Nook Simple Touch Limited Edition e-Reader for $79

For one day only this Black Friday, Barnes & Noble will be cutting the price of its 6-inch Nook Simple Touch e-reader by $20 to just $79. The only caveat is that you must drop by your local B&N to get this limited edition device with a white edge (pictured right). Unlike the $99 Amazon Kindle Touch (or the $79 Kindle Wi-Fi for that matter), this Nook Simple Touch has no “annoying ads,” is compatible with ePUB format for library books, plus you can walk into any B&N store to get help on your e-reader and purchases. So if after-market service is important to you, then this the e-reader to get on Friday.

Keep us up to date on the availability of these mobile devices by commenting below.

[Source: CompUSA}

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Gloria Sin is a freelance journalist based in New York City.

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