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December 7, 2004 |
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It looks like product delays, recalls, and rumors of quality-control problems can't turn you away from the bargain-charm of new Motorola cell phones. The V265 captures your attention this week, and while you're at it, you're looking for dish on the AT&T Wireless/Cingular merger. We're happy to oblige.
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Motorola V265
Just a few weeks ago, we warned you about Motorola's quality-control problems of late, including delays on such hot-ticket items as the MPx220 and recalls of the V710 and the V600. Nevertheless, now that the V265--a fairly basic camera phone that features a cool-looking black design--is on sale from Verizon for just $49, you're beating down the search doors for information on it. Well, don't say we didn't warn you. Early user opinions on this phone already suggest it's not up to par.
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AT&T Wireless/Cingular merger
Remember how naive you were when you bought your first cell phone? You thought, hey, I'm just getting a fun new gadget, great for emergencies and keeping track of my friends. But the next thing you knew, your carrier owned you. Now, shopping for a cell phone is really all about shopping for a carrier--the phone is often secondary. So it's no surprise that the recent AT&T Wireless and Cingular merger has so many of you wondering what in blazes is happening/has happened/will happen to your service. The good news is that CNET's Cell Phone Diva, Joni Blecher, is already on it. Get your top five questions answered here.
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PlayStation 2
You always want what you can't have. This holiday season, you want the PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo DS, and you know what? You can't have either. At least not this second--Sony and Nintendo are both suffering shortages on the season's hottest consoles, leaving you with either eBay markups or the old waiting game. Sony has issued words of comfort, saying it will have PS2s on the market in time for "the holiday season," but you know what else? Hanukkah starts Thursday, and Christmas is next. We're betting the Tickle Me Elmo shopping brawls will be nothing next to the Great Console Hunts of 2004. Kick it up a notch, guys.
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Thunderbird 1.0 release candidate
Are you loving life with the Firefox browser? Yeah, us, too. And the nice folks at the Mozilla Foundation have another gift for you this season: the Thunderbird 1.0 release candidate, a free e-mail client that could be an answer to Outlook and is definitely a replacement choice for Outlook Express. The free e-mailer makes it easy to switch, automatically importing all of your information from Outlook and Outlook Express, and it offers powerful bells and whistles such as an RSS reader, a built-in junk mail filter, color-coding, smart search tools, and fewer exploitable vulnerabilities than the Microsoft stuff.
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Niro MovieMouse
Home theater has come a long way--a disturbingly long way, actually. The MovieMouse, for example, is a tiny personal surround-sound system that you can actually set in your lap. (You don't have to--the coffee table in front of you will work fine.) The idea, though, is that the UFO-shaped jobbie gives you focused faux-surround sound, almost like surround headphones, so that you can watch and hear a movie with all that full, rich sound without annoying neighbors or sleeping housemates. Although, at $200, we suspect your curiosity is mostly passing. The MovieMouse may be cute, but Buzz puts it in the "kooky home-theater novelty" department.
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