The Jabra Halo stereo Bluetooth headset, open and folded.
(Credit: Jabra)I was quite impressed with the Jabra Halo stereo Bluetooth headset when I first saw it at CTIA 2009 in Las Vegas. It looked thin and lightweight, and promised to be the first wireless stereo headset with dual-microphone noise cancellation. Indeed, it was our cream of the crop nominee for best accessory at the show.
Now Jabra has made the Halo official, announcing that it'll be available for sale in Best Buy retail stores next week. Other features of the headset include multipoint technology, eight hours of talk or music time, Zirene Power Bass, and a 3.5mm cord option in case you can't or don't want to use Bluetooth. It also folds down to a more compact shape. The suggested retail price is $129, which may seem a bit costly, but if the HALO delivers on its promise, it would be well worth it.
The zBoost One has a compact design.
(Credit: Wi-Ex)Wi-Ex, the manufacturer of the zBoost line of cell phone signal boosters, announced two new products at CTIA.
Though we didn't get the chance to check them out while in Las Vegas, we can pass on the details.
The zBoost One is the company's first one-piece signal booster. It promises an easy setup process that consists of just plugging it in and syncing it to your phone. It's compatible with the 1900 CDMA and GSM band for both phones and data cards.
At $249, it still isn't cheap and you'll need to find a suitable location in your home or office (near a window is best).
The zBoost International is for use abroad.
(Credit: Wi-Ex)The zBoost International is designed for users outside North America. It's compatible with the 900 and 1900 GSM bands, which are the standard in Europe (North American carriers use the 850 and 1900 bands). It promises a range of 200 meters (656 feet) and will also work for voice and data.
Though the setup involves more parts, you should have more freedom to place it around your house. The zBoost International is $499.
Welcome to CTIA
(Credit: Kent German/CNET)The best place at any trade show is your departure gate at the airport. While events like CTIA certainly can be interesting, and even fun, they're also a lot of work. What's more, I don't enjoy being away from my family, my friends, and my own couch. Yet, even with those caveats I can always count on CTIA, CES, and the GSMA World Congress to teach me lessons about what's happening in the cell phone world. Even when the show is relatively quiet, as CES 2009 was, I wind up learning something.
Times are tough
Even before the CNET crew arrived in Las Vegas we knew that CTIA wouldn't be too lively. Such was the case at both CES and GSMA, so we couldn't imagine that CTIA would be different. As I said in my CTIA wrap-up, the economy is a likely factor, but CTIA also has the unfortunate position of following two events with worldwide profiles.
About as busy as it got
(Credit: Kent German/CNET)As expected, attendance was down by a noticeable amount. I don't have figures to back me up right now, but there were plenty of telling signs that fewer people made the trip to Vegas. For instance, I didn't have to wait in line to get lunch and at times you could go bowling down the convention floor aisles. More importantly, while horrendous taxi lines are very common at McCarran Airport, I waited only a few minutes. I seriously think that the length of the Vegas airport cab line should be a new economic indicator.
News at the show was also pretty light. In its usual fashion, Samsung made the strongest showing with LG and Kyocera following closely behind. Yet, the total numbers of new phones introduced was far smaller than in previous years, and we didn't hear any hot tidbits around high-profile items like the Palm Pre or the Google Android OS. Moto, Nokia, and HTC had just one major announcement each, and Sony Ericsson had none. Sony Ericsson even shared a booth with parent company Ericsson, a sure sign that it the company is laying low.... Read more
Check out the sights from the CTIA show floor.
(Credit: Kent German/CNET)As CTIA 2009 closes, so does the busy cell phone trade show season that began three months ago at CES. And now that the CNET crew has left Las Vegas for San Francisco and New York City, we've had a chance to reflect on what CTIA gave us. I'll describe the highlights in detail below, but be sure to check out our CTIA videos and CTIA photo galleries. We also picked our favorite products for the Best of CTIA.
A snoozer of a show
Though there were plenty of new phones to handle, CTIA was rather quiet. Sure, the torpid economy is a likely culprit, but CTIA has a bigger strike against it. Since it follows the two much bigger blowouts of CES and the GSMA World Congress, CTIA just can't offer the same level of news.
It's not really CTIA's fault--after all, a U.S.-focused show can't be expected to compete with global events--but I'm not the first to suggest that CTIA should switch its schedule to later in the year. But as I said, there was plenty to report.
Samsung left a good impression.
(Credit: Kent German/CNET)
Getting the message
If there was one theme at CTIA 2009, it was the messaging phone. A total of five new models made their first appearance in Las Vegas, with Samsung and AT&T leading the way.
On the Monday before the show, Sammy and AT&T unveiled the Samsung Impression and the Samsung Magnet. Both offer full QWERTY keyboards on a different theme. While the Magnet offers minimal features and a simple design, the Impression has a comfortable slider design, a brilliant display, and mid-range multimedia. It made such an impression on us that we picked it as our top phone of the show.
... Read more
LG Wine at CTIA 2009
(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)Even though the LG Wine was released back in January, we weren't able to have a hands-on with the device until CTIA 2009. The Wine comes in this nice burgundy color to go along with the wine theme, and is a simple mid-tier flip phone from U.S. Cellular. There's also a white version.
The most unique thing about the Wine is that it has four dedicated hot keys underneath the display. They correspond to the messaging interface, the alarm clock, the images folder, and the U.S. Cellular's easyedge Web portal. It also has a very roomy and tactile keypad with huge numbers on the keys for easier legibility.
The LG Wine has four dedicated hot keys
(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)It has fairly simple features like a 1.3-megapixel camera, a speakerphone, Bluetooth, and voice command. It's available from U.S. Cellular for $29.95 with a two-year agreement, though you can get it without a contract for $179.95.
During Samsung's press conference at CTIA 2009, company executives didn't have much to say about its Android plans, other than that it's on track to deliver devices during the second half of 2009.
However, Samsung Mobile's executive vice president of global product strategy, Won-Pyo Hong, was feeling a little more chatty and revealed some new details in a conversation with Forbes.
While Hong didn't get any more specific about release dates, he did say the United States will get two smartphones using Google's mobile operating system later this year and that they will be offered by two carriers.
Of the U.S. service providers, it's believed that Sprint and T-Mobile will be the ones to offer them, since they're both part of the Open Handset Alliance.
Hong added that the two handsets will look "totally different" to appease carrier preferences, while Europe will probably get one device at launch, since the same model can be shared across multiple carriers. Samsung's first non-U.S. Android device is slated to be released in June.
When asked why it's taken so long for Samsung to bring an Android handset to market, Hong said part of the reason is that the company wanted to add its own twist to the Android user experience, but it also was waiting for clearance from carriers.
"Some operators were concerned about the vision Google has, (and) that affected (timing)," Hong said. Hmm, wonder who that could be?
The U.S. Cellular LG Banter is on the far left, followed by the Alltel LG Banter in the middle, and the LG Rumor 2 is on the far right.
(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)As you might recall, the LG Banter is Alltel's version of the LG Rumor 2. Well, U.S. Cellular will also offer the phone, and we managed to take a slightly closer look at the LG Banter at CTIA 2009.
The LG Banter's keyboard is slightly different from the LG Rumor 2's.
(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)Indeed, it looks a lot like the LG Rumor 2, but it has a slightly more rectangular design, plus it has interchangeable faceplates. The faceplates are pretty easy to take on and off--just slip your finger nail in around the edge to pry it off. So far, the Banter has silver and green face plates. The Banter's keyboard is noticeably different; the two soft keys for landscape mode are now incorporated into the keyboard itself (The Rumor 2's soft keys for landscape mode are on the right side of the display) and the emoticon key on the Rumor 2 is not present on the Banter.
Features, which include a 1.3-megapixel camera, a music player, Bluetooth, a microSD card slot, and lots of messaging options like support for work email, are the same as the Rumor 2's. It's only $20 with an Alltel two-year service agreement. It's available from U.S. Cellular, as well, but for $50.
BlueAnt S1
(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)
Buttons on the BlueAnt S1
(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)BlueAnt introduced a new visor-mount speakerphone at CTIA 2009, called the BlueAnt S1. Designed to work in the car, it has pretty much the same features as the Supertooth 3, except it has support for A2DP. That means you can stream music wirelessly to it from a device that has stereo Bluetooth. It's not really meant as a stereo speaker system though, so don't expect it to replace your expensive car stereo.
Like the other BlueAnt devices, the S1 lets you use your voice to make and answer calls. It also has multipoint, which means it can connect with up to two different devices at the same time, and it has background noise reduction too. However, unlike the Supertooth 3, it doesn't have a text-to-speech feature that will read out incoming caller ID. The BlueAnt S1 will be available later this year around June or July for $79 each.
LG Prada 2 with slide-out QWERTY keyboard
(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)
The LG Prada 2 isn't new, of course, and our European and Asian cousins have had the chance to get their hands on it months ago. In fact, our friends over at CNET UK have given their own hands-on impressions of the device. However, I finally had a chance to get my hands on it at CTIA 2009, and I was excited to try it out.
The LG Prada 2 is definitely designed for the fashion-conscious, with its smooth glossy black surface and slim profile. The touch-screen display is a 3-inch capacitive multitouch interface with active Flash user interface and is very easy to use. The menu interface is clearly an upgrade over the original LG Prada; much smoother and sleeker than before. The multitouch interface meant we could zoom in and out of Web pages by just pinching our fingers, like on the iPhone. If texting was a chore on the original Prada, it shouldn't be on the Prada 2, thanks to the great slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The four-line QWERTY keyboard is roomy and the keys feel good to type on.
The Prada 2 comes with a host of features that puts the original Prada to shame. They include dual-band HSDPA and quad-band GSM (which means you can get an unlocked version and use it on a U.S. GSM carrier), Wi-Fi, a full HTML browser, stereo Bluetooth, TV-out, FM radio, a document viewer, 60MB of internal memory, a microSD card slot, and a 5-megapixel camera. The camera has similar editing features to the Viewty, like the ability to record slow-motion video.
Of course, if you want to really bling it up, you can get the Prada Link Bluetooth watch to go along with your new Prada 2. You can't really make calls with it like a watch phone, but you can see incoming caller ID and read text messages with it.
The LG Prada 2 by itself will cost around $549 unlocked since it isn't available from any U.S. carrier. We'll attempt to get a review unit of our own to test out, but you should also check out the reviews on CNET UK and CNET Asia.
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LG HBM-900
(Credit: LG)Along with the Xenon and the Neon, LG also introduced the LG HBM-900 Bluetooth headset at CTIA.
This rather large headset has not one or two microphones, but three, in what it's calling a tri-mic ultra-clear audio solution. The multifunction button is touch-sensitive, and the power button is a slider switch. Features of the headset include automatic volume control, volume circulation, echo cancellation, noise suppression, multipoint, and voice activated dialing.
Not sure what the price and availability of it is just yet, but we're sure it'll be out this year.
