Phones

Every once in awhile, a product comes along that makes us sad because it reflects some form of societal decay. Case in point: Even though we were initially interested in the Tianyu B832 for its attractive black-lacquer design, it turns out that the phone's most distinguishing feature may be its crime-fighting capabilities.

If the handset is stolen and the thief tries to make calls using a different SIM card, for example, it will automatically send a text message to your old number (which you'll presumably want to keep with your new phone). Mobile Magazine says the message will … Read more

No, no, it's not what you think. This isn't an OS war, but rather a nice collaboration between Palm and Microsoft that will benefit Treo 700p and Treo 680 owners. Today Palm announced the availability of a Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync Update that brings Microsoft's Direct Push technology to the Palm-based Treos and allows for wireless synchronization of your e-mail, calendar, and contacts. Woo-hoo. The update will be available starting Monday, at which point you can download it from www.palm.com/easdownload.

Good 'ol HTC recently launched another innovative device (in Europe, of course--guh), but it's not a smart phone. The HTC Athena is a UMPC of sorts, and it's jam-packed with features. It is powered by a 624MHz Intel processor, runs Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC Phone Edition, has an 8GB hard drive and 128MB of RAM and 256MB of flash ROM. You want wireless options? Oh, it's got your wireless options--Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi, GSM/GPRS/EDGE, UMTS/HSDPA, and GPS. On top of all that, the gadget boasts a 5-inch, 640x480 resolution touch screen; a detachable … Read more

Here in the CNET editorial cube farm, we're usually not too fond of receiving random, unannounced packages from tech vendors. Not that I'm afraid of anthrax or suspiciously ticking boxes. No, it's more that I prefer to be aware of the products I'm receiving to ensure that they're not being sent to me in vain--there's not a lot this San Francisco-based MP3 editor can do with a digital camera accessory except ship it to the camera editors in New York. But every once in a while, I receive an unexpected package that contains something … Read more

Palm OS will now be known as Garnet OS, Access announced Thursday. Garnet was originally the code name used by PalmSource for Palm OS 5.4, the most current version of the software.

The renaming is part of a process begun in October 2006, when Access announced that its subsidiary, PalmSource, the developer of Palm OS, would also take the name Access.

Access is removing all vestiges of Palm from its products as part of a previous agreement to sell PalmSource's rights in the Palm Trademark Holding Company to Palm, according to a statement.

In case you haven't noticed, one of Crave's more distinguishing features is paranoia over a vast number of issues. But one of them we've yet to explore in depth is our fear of having a laptop stolen at a Wi-Fi coffee shop while we are, er, preoccupied.

That's why we like the idea of the "Bodyguard," a tracking system that triggers an alarm whenever your designated possessions are separated from you by a predetermined distance. It's similar in concept to other wireless transmitters, but at $40 the Bodyguard is a lot cheaper than … Read more

We can hardly blame the people at Plantronics if they've gotten tired of making and remaking headsets. But the last thing we would have guessed they'd get into is clothing. Not just T-shirts, mind you, but apparel with built-in technologies that can be used with media players and mobile phones.

Its new line is being marketed through a partnership with Quiksilver and Roxy--and, judging by the names of the first three products, Plantronics has deferred to the judgment of the apparel industry's marketing reps as well: the "Pulse Helmet" and "Double Daffy Snow Jacket&… Read more

Motorola remains hard at work pumping out new models from its big, thin-phone machine. Pictures of updated versions of the Krzr and Rizr trickled into the blogosphere yesterday, after Moto showed the phones to company investors. Both the Krzr K3 and the Rizr Z8 should feature all the goodies of the existing models but add 3G support as well. No word on availability, but stay tuned.

Though the iPhone announcement at Macworld completely trumped any cell phone news at CES, we did mange to find a few gems in Las Vegas. In fact, we liked Verizon's V Cast TV so much that we chose it as our pick for CNET's Best of CES in the cell phones category. The sharpness of the picture quality did wow us, and the supported handsets--the LG VX9400 and the Samsung SCH-U620--were pretty cool in their own right.

Now, of course, we have to wait until March for the service to launch. But even when it arrives, there'… Read more