The latest from TechCrunch
- Consumer Review: The Best Smartphones On The Market
- Live Gamer Looks To Capitalize On Virtual Goods Boom
| Consumer Review: The Best Smartphones On The Market | Top |
| With the Holiday Season nearly upon us, we at TechCrunch thought it would behoove us to share with everyone a definitive list of the best smartphones currently available (or launching shortly ), so as to help with any possible purchasing decisions which may occur in the upcoming months. In making our decisions, we looked at these phones from the standpoint of the consumer. Thus, developer struggles , business security, and other such problems were not taken into account. Instead, functionality, price, and the overall usefulness of various smartphones made up the criteria which we adhered to during our reviews. These phones can be found on a multitude of carriers, operating systems, and continents. Feel free to comment below on the merits of this list of the best smart phones currently available. iPhone 3GS You know you’re on top when phone manufacturers are constantly struggling to produce an “iPhone killer” . The iPhone 3GS boasts a massive App Store (with nearly 100,000 apps now), the largest developer base, and is simply put, the best phone on the market. Status : Launched June 19th, 2009 on ATT Screen : 3.5-inch 480 x 320-pixel resolution at 163 ppi widescreen Multi-Touch display Dimensions : 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm; 135 grams Camera : 3 megapixels w/ AutoFocus, No flash Battery : 1150 mAh Li-Ion Standby Time : 300 hours Talk Time : Up to 12 hours on 2G; Up to 5 hours on 3G Processor : Samsung S5PC100; 600 MHz Internal/External Memory : 16GB or 32GB Extras : 3.5mm Headset jack, accelerometer, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled Operating System: iPhone OS Price: $199 for 16 GB; $299 for 32GB Motorola Droid If any phone is going to challenge the iPhone’s supremacy, it will be the Verizon Droid . The Droid is on a superior network than the iPhone, and will be running Android 2.0 which has a much improved user interface over previous versions of Android. Status : Rumored to be announced October 28th; Verizon Wireless. Screen : 3.7-inch/480×854 Full Touchscreen with Full QWERTY Slider Dimensions : 60 x 115.8 x 13.7 mm; 169 grams Camera : 5.0 Megapixels with AutoFocus Battery : Li-ion 1400mAh Standby Time : 450 Hours Talk Time :7 Hours Processor : Texas Instruments OMAP 3430 processor; 600MHz Internal/External Memory : 512MB Flash, 256MB RAM/MicroSD (16GB capacity) Extras : 3.5mm Headset jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled Operating System: Android 2.0 Price: Unknown Palm Pre The Palm Pre signaled the resurrection of Palm. It is well-designed, and has a very promising OS, which if tweaked and improved slightly, can challenge any OS on the market. Status : Available June 6th on Sprint. Available October 13 in Germany and October 16 in UK and Ireland Screen : 3.1-inch touch screen with 24-bit color 320×480 resolution HVGA display and full QWERTY keyboard Dimensions : 100.5 x 59.5 x 16.95 mm; 135 grams Camera : 3 megapixel camera with LED flash and AutoFocus Battery : 1150 mAh Standby Time : 250 Hours Talk Time : 5 Hours Processor : Texas Instruments OMAP 3430 processor; 600MHz Internal/External Memory : 8 GB Extras : 3.5mm Headset jack, accelerometer, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled Operating System: Palm webOS Price: $149.99 HTC Hero/T-Mobile G2 Touch/Sprint HTC Hero The inclusion of HTC Sense makes the Hero the best Android phone currently on the market. It is fast, stylish, and easy to use. Status : HTC Hero Launched July 24th for Orange UK. T-Mobile G2 Touch Launched July 29th. Screen : 3.2-inch/ 320×480 HVGA resolution; Full Touchscreen/TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen Dimensions : 112 x 56.2 x 14.35 mm ; 135 grams Camera : 5 Megapixels with AutoFocus Battery : 1350 mAh Lithium-ion battery Standby Time : Up to 750 hours for WCDMA, Up to 440 hours for GSM Talk Time :Up to 420 minutes for WCDMA, Up to 470 minutes for GSM Processor : Qualcomm® MSM7200A™, 528 MHz Internal/External Memory :288MB/MicroSD 2.0 Extras : 3.5mm Headset jack, Wi-Fi, accelerometer, Bluetooth and GPS enabled Operating System: Android Price: $179.99 BlackBerry Bold The BlackBerry Bold is RIM’s crowning achievement thus far and the impending Bold 9700 should see widespread adoption. Status : Available on AT&T; Bold 9700 available November 2nd, 2009 Screen : 2.6 inch Half VGA resolution Dispay Screen; 480 x 320 pixels; 65,000 colors Dimensions : 114 x 66 x 15; 136 grams Camera : 2.0 MP w/ AutoFocus Battery : Li – Ion, 1500 mAh Standby Time : 324 hours Talk Time : 4.5 hours Processor : 624 MHz Internal/External Memory : 1 GB Extras : 3.5mm Headset jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS capable with extended ephemeris Operating System: BlackBerry OS Price: $199.99 HTC Magic/T-Mobile MyTouch 3G The MyTouch 3G is an easy to use, stylish Android phone. The absence of a standard 3.5mm headset jack is a bit of a disappointment, but otherwise this phone is quite powerful and useful. Furthermore, Mike quit the iPhone for the MyTouch, and that has to mean something. Status : HTC Magic Launched May 1, 2009 and July 10th, 2009 in Japan; MyTouch 3G launched July 8, 2009. Available through T-Mobile, Vodafone, and Docomo Screen :3.2″ /320 x 480 HVGA Touchscreen/TFT, TFD, LCD 262k Dimensions : 113 x 55 x 13 mm; 118.5 grams Camera : 3.2 Megapixels with AutoFocus (MyTouch has a 5MP camera) Battery : 1340 mAh Lithium-ion battery Standby Time : 420 hours Talk Time : 7.5 Hours Processor : Qualcomm® MSM7201a™, 528 MHz Internal/External Memory :192/288 MB (Underclocked)/ MicroSD up to 32GB Extras : HTC ExtUSB Headset Jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled Operating System: Android Price: $99.99 (T-Mobile MyTouch $149.99) BlackBerry Storm 2 The BlackBerry Storm 2, while an improvement over its predecessor, still lacks the “wow” factor necessary to push it higher up on this list. Status : Available on Verizon Wireless October 28th, 2009 Screen : 3.25 inch 360 x 480 pixel touchscreen; 65k colors Dimensions : 112.5 x 62.2 x 13.9 mm; 160 grams Camera : 3.2 Megapixels w/ LED flash and AutoFocus Battery : 1400 mAh Li-Ion Standby Time : 270 hours Talk Time : 5.5 hours Processor : 528 MHz Qualcomm processor Internal/External Memory : 2 GB/16 GB microSD Extras : 3.5 mm headset, GPS, bluetooth, and wi-fi enabled Operating System: BlackBerry OS Price: $179.99 BlackBerry Tour Our biggest qualm with the BlackBerry Tour is its lack of Wi-Fi. Other than that however, the Tour is a great phone if you’re a chronic email user or if you text message a lot. Status : Available on July 12, 2009 through Verizon and Sprint. Screen : 2.4 inch 480×360 pixel display screen; 65,000 colors Dimensions : 112 x 62 x 14.2 mm; 130 grams Camera : 3.2 Megapixels with AutoFocus Battery : 1400 mAHr removable/rechargeable cryptographic lithium cell Standby Time : 336 Hours Talk Time : 5 Hours Processor : 528 MHz Qualcomm processor Internal/External Memory : 256 MB RAM Extras : 3.5mm Headset jack, Bluetooth and GPS enabled. No Wi-Fi nor accelerometer Operating System: BlackBerry OS Price: $149.99 Nokia E71x The Nokia E71x is a sleek and stylish phone, but like the Magic, lacks a 3.5mm headset jack. Nonetheless, this phone is just right for those on a budget, given its $99.99 price tag. Status : Available on AT&T Screen : 2.4″ LCD (Color TFT/TFD) display screen; 320 x 240 pixels (QVGA); 16.7 million (24-bit) Dimensions :114 x 57 x 10 mm; 126g Camera : 3.2MP w/ Autofocus and Flash Battery : BP-4L 1500 mAh Li-Po standard battery Standby Time : 480 hours Talk Time : 4.5 hours Processor : ARM 11, 369 MHz Internal/External Memory : 110MB/ MicroSD Extras : 2.5mm Headset jack, bluetooth, wi-fi, and GPS enabled Operating System: Symbian OS Price: $99.00 Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. | |
| Live Gamer Looks To Capitalize On Virtual Goods Boom | Top |
| On the heels of its recent acquisitions of microtransaction platforms Twofish and N-Cash, Live Gamer, an online marketplace for players to trade and buy video game virtual goods, is seeing success in managing virtual economies for online games, virtual worlds and social networks. In conjunction with game makers, Live Gamer's platform lets online game players trade virtual goods they earn in games. The company is using Twofish and N-Cash’s micropayments technologies to power commerce in these gaming marketplaces. Gaming customers including Everyplay (Finland), friendscook, Fotochatter, Hangout, Hooked and Radius IM (United States), ph03nix (Canada) and GPM (Korea) are using Live Gamer’s virtual goods exchange to power an economy platform around their games. Live Gamer’s platform includes virtual currency and virtual item systems, inventory management, publisher-sponsored secondary market trading, analytics, fraud management and support features. Currently, Live Gamer has over 72 customers and supports over 56 million registered users across all of partner implementations, exceeding 3 million micro-transactions per month. Live Gamer co-founder and president Andrew Schneider said that the microtransaction and gaming industries are evolving at such a rapid pace, that the requirement for his company extends beyond just creating a safe e-commerce transaction. He says that with competition and innovation, virtual economies include a host of more robust and interactive features, including advanced merchadising of virtual goods. Schneider said that Live Gamer is also particularly excited about Apple’s recent ruling to allow in-app commerce for free apps. He see this as new and potentially huge dimension for microtransactions and payments to gain even more momentum in the space, and says that Live Gamer will definitely be trying to be a part of this opportunity in the future. Competitors to Live Gamer include PlaySpan (which also made a recent acquisition of a micropayments startup). Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. | |
CREATE MORE ALERTS:
Auctions - Find out when new auctions are posted
Horoscopes - Receive your daily horoscope
Music - Get the newest Album Releases, Playlists and more
News - Only the news you want, delivered!
Stocks - Stay connected to the market with price quotes and more
Weather - Get today's weather conditions
| You received this email because you subscribed to Yahoo! Alerts. Use this link to unsubscribe from this alert. To change your communications preferences for other Yahoo! business lines, please visit your Marketing Preferences. To learn more about Yahoo!'s use of personal information, including the use of web beacons in HTML-based email, please read our Privacy Policy. Yahoo! is located at 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089. |
No comments:
Post a Comment