Rodfather Mobile

The Boy Genius Report just posted the rebate form for this Fall.  This covers deals on devices purchased between September 16th through November 3rd.  It also gives a glimpse of the new devices coming soon.

First off, is the BlackBerry Curve 8310. Yes, the one with GPS. We’ve got a feeling AT&T is going to pull a BlackBerry 8820 with that one and put the current BlackBerry Curve on EOL as soon as the BlackBerry 8310 launches. In addition, we’ve got another confirmation of the AT&T Tilt, along with an AT&T Tilt with no camera for you business folks. The SMT5700 is rumored to launch at a super low price point and that will also be available in a no camera flavor. Everything else is mostly gravy, including the Motorola Q9 Global, Pantech Duo, and BlackBerry 8820.

What caught my eye is the inclusion of the Sierra Wireless 881U.  It’s the updated version of the 875U with HSUPA support.  If I go with AT&T for my WWAN solution, I’ll definitely try that modem.

Link

Aiptek released the A-HD 720p (1280×720) SD based camcorder for $170. Wow. I thought their GO-HD was cheap since you can find them for around $230 these days.

I’ve been a fan of Aiptek since I bought the MPVR a while back for $80. I know, the quality isn’t all that great.. but for that price, it was a steal. A really small, flash based, no-moving parts, beat up camera you can take anywhere is super handy. When going surf fishing, the only device I take with me is the Aiptek since I really don’t care if it gets thrashed. I don’t how many times I’ve dropped it with no sign of damage.

The design if this new model looks very similar to the Sanyo SD camcorders. It definitely looks more compact and slimmer than the MPVR or GO-HD.

I don’t think you can call these new Aiptek HD camcorders hybrids anymore though. The MPVR is a camera, digital camera, webcam, video recorder, video player, and MP3 player. The A-HD and GO-HD are just digital cameras and camcorders now.

Here are the specs taken from Amazon Aiptek. (EDIT: Amazon’s specs are for the GO-HD) The main difference from the GO-HD is the removal of optical zoom and LED light. It encodes to h.264 at around 4Mbps. With an 8GB card, you should be able to record around 4 hours of footage. I hope the battery life is better than GO-HD’s 30 minutes.

Via Engadget
Review by fishycomics @ Steve’s Digicams Hybrid Digicams forum
Amazon.com product page
Aiptek product page
UPDATE: $149.99 @
Circuit City

I personally haven’t use WebGuide4 but have heard good things about it. It’s similar to Orb, SlingBox, or Sony’s LocationFree in that you can placeshift live TV. WebGuide connects with your Media Center PC so you can schedule, view live or recorded TV straight from your browser.
The developer is moving on to the Media Center team so future development of WebGuide will be discontinued.

I’ll check it out and possibly replace Orb as a way to stream media from home.

Mobility Site via the unwired

Found a nice deal on Ben’s Bargains. Enter the code USXNARTRIPLE at checkout and you get 10% off.
I just tried it on a X61T Tablet PC and it worked.

Link

Even if you don’t have an iPhone, it could be an easy way to create mpeg4 video.

• Add your photos or videos. With a single click, you can touch-up, crop, or rotate pictures and videos. It’s that easy!
• Choose from variety of transition & ken-burns styled effects. Add soundtracks, and your own voice narration to your photo stories. Then, personalize them with titles and captions.
• Generate to MPEG-4 format and share your home videos on iPhone anytime, anywhere!

Link

Here’s a nice deal on a solid MP3 player. It’s refurbished, but for $50, still sounds like a nice pick up.

Features:

• Sleek, thin design with large 1.8” TFT color screen for easy viewing
• Strong alloy metal casing provides excellent durability and scratch resistance
• Simple to use, back-lit controls for fast device interface navigation
• User replaceable and rechargeable Lithium Ion battery for up to 20 hours of battery life
• Features microSD expansion slot for additional memory capacity
• Supports SanDisk TrustedFlash and Gruvi content cards
• Digital FM tuner, on-the-fly FM recording, and voice recording
• Supports Subscription Music Stores

Specifications:

• Memory capacity: 2GB
• Memory type: Flash memory
• External memory: MicroSD card slot
• Audio file format: MP3, WMA, WMA-DRM10 (PlaysForSure), WAV
• Hours of music content: 32 hours
• Still image file format: JPEG, TIFF, PNG, BMP, GIF
• Video format: AVI, MPEG, MPE/VOB (unprotected), DAT, ASF, QuickTime MOV (6.5 or higher), WMV (Media Player 10 required) all must be converted by Sansa Media Converter
• Tuner type: Digital FM tuner
• Tuner memory: 20
• Display: 1.8-inch TFT color LCD display
• Power supply: Rechargeable lithium ion battery, user replaceable (included), USB charging
• Battery life: Up to 20 hours
• Connectors: Headdphone jack, USB 2.0 port
• Microphone: Built-in microphone
• FM recording
• Voice recording
• Microsoft PlaysFor Sure
• Dimension: 3.5×1.74×0.56 inches (WxHxD)
• Weight: 2.7 ounces

Link