Filed under: Qwest, Verizon Wireless

Hey, Qwest customers, ever hear of Verizon? No? Good, because your landline operator would just love to facilitate that little introduction for you. Following news earlier in the year that Qwest would be euthanizing its Sprint-based MVNO in favor of just simply reselling Verizon-branded equipment through its own channels, news has spread that the goods are now available from Qwest’s kiosks, retail locations, and telesales line. For the time being, legacy Qwest Wireless subscribers can soldier on if they so choose, but the operator intends to put on the full-court press to get people converted by offering to waive the termination fee (golly, how very kind of them) and hooking up special deals.

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: Software, Motorola, Windows Mobile

Nothing official just yet, but MOTOMODDING has managed to pull what appears to be a leaked version of AT&T’s upcoming branded Windows Mobile 6.1 ROM for the Motorola Q9h. Cooked ROMs are so ubiquitous these days that it’s easy to dismiss it as having zero bearing on an actual carrier / manufacturer release, but since this is straight-up branded, we’re really hopeful — and installing the leaked ROM involves a little hoop-jumping, so the less brave among us might just consider waiting for the genuine article. To the rest of you who like the feeling of flying by the seat of your pants, though, good luck and godspeed.

[Via WMExperts]

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

It looks like a team of UC Berkeley researchers led by mechanical engineering professor Xiang Zhang (pictured) have found a way to squeeze light into tighter spaces than ever though possible, which they say could lead to breakthroughs in the fields of optical communications, miniature lasers, and optical computers. The key to this new technique, it seems, is the use of a “hybrid” optical fiber consisting of a very thin semiconductor wire placed close to a smooth sheet of silver, which effectively acts as a capacitor that traps the light waves in the gap between the wire and the metal sheet and lets it slip though spaces as tiny as 10 nanometers (or more than 100 times thinner than current optical fibers). That’s apparently as opposed to previous attempts that relied on surface plasmonics, in which light binds to electrons and allows it to travel along the surface of metal, which only proved effective over short distances. While all of this is still in the theoretical stage, the researchers seem to think they’re on to something big, with research associate Rupert Olten saying that this new development “means we can potentially do some things we have never done before.

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Gaming

We can always count on our man Ben Heck to be up to something crazy in his mad console-modding workshop, and while his latest creation isn’t as wild as the PS3 laptop, it’s still good for a double-take — check out this wired 360 controller shoehorned into a DualShock3 shell, complete with green LEDs. Ben says it works great, rumble included, but that there’s no headset connector and the L2 and R2 triggers aren’t analog — both things he’s hoping to fix in the next version. We’d suggest keeping the DS3 buttons as well — while the colorful 360 buttons look pretty hot against that black case, we’d rather break this thing out and blow minds stealth-style.

[Thanks, Aguiluz]

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Gaming

Console modders out there have been doing crazy things with controllers for a while now, and while this latest piece isn’t as crazy as the one-handed Access Controller, it’s still good for a double-take — check out this wired 360 controller shoehorned into a DualShock3 shell, complete with green LEDs. Ben says it works great, rumble included, but that there’s no headset connector and the L2 and R2 triggers aren’t analog — both things he’s hoping to fix in the next version. We’d suggest keeping the DS3 buttons as well — while the colorful 360 buttons look pretty hot against that black case, we’d rather break this thing out and blow minds stealth-style.

[Thanks, Aguiluz]

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Games, Nokia

Perhaps one of the largest barriers to a massive, all-out, unqualified success for Nokia’s latest incarnation of N-Gage is that it takes two to tango — yes, it’s as much a single-player gaming platform as it is a multi-player one, but the community features are its crown jewel and it’s pretty tough to find another N-Gager in some parts of the world. Nokia’s Aki Jarvilehto told attendees of the Develop 2008 conference that it’s looking at using N-Gage’s “assets” on Xbox Live or PlayStation Online, though it’s not clear whether there’d be any interactivity between console players and their mobile equivalents, or if Nokia’s just looking for another revenue stream to augment on-phone sales. Either way, Creatures of the Deep on the big screen without having to jack into our N95′s TV-out? Bring it on.

[Via The Nokia Blog]

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: Handsets, RIM, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA

We know, we know — you’ve already seen a couple of Bold reviews, but honestly, can you really get enough of this thing? While the release date draws nearer (or not), why not feast your retinas on yet another hands-on experience that involves a closer look at the user interface, an inside glance (yes, sans the back cover) of the internals and a slew of comparison shots with other handsets. Sorry to keep teasing you, but you know you love the torture.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Nokia

Nokia’s doing far better than rivals like Sony Ericsson and Motorola, but it’s not going to let up while it’s ahead — the cellphone maker is reportedly cutting prices across the board in order to increase pressure on the competition. The biggest cuts are on the 5310/ 5610 music phones and the 8GB N81, but most other handsets have seen price decreases of up to 10 percent as well. The move is something of a surprise, with one analyst calling it a “Crazy Ivan,” which is probably the first time The Hunt For Red October has ever been employed to describe the actions of a multinational corporation. So, Espoo — does this mean the Tube is going to be crazy cheap, or what?

[Via Phone Scoop]

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Original post by Nilay Patel