Phew: Day two at CTIA Las Vegas
Today Doug and I hit the floor in earnest, touring the big booths: Samsung Mobile, LG, and Sony Ericsson, and also catching an AT&T media luncheon where CEO Ralph de la Vega basically confirmed that a 3G iPhone will be hitting his stores' shelves in the next few months. We sat in funny music pod chairs (every show seems to have a different company with music pod chairs), ate some good bbq, and ... of course ... saw lots and lots of phones.
We've posted eight videos from the show so far and have another ton of footage to go through, edit, and post (seriously, I've got at least 9 gigs of raw footage on my laptop right now from the past two days alone). So we're gonna break for dinner, hit the Guitar Hero Mobile launch party at House of Blues, and then get back to editing, posting, blogging, and of course, returning to the Convention Center for the show's final day.
A few thoughts on today aside from the iPhone news:
- Sprint and Samsung won Best In Show for their new Instinct handset
- YouTube commenters are already arguing about whether Instinct is "Just like an iPhone but on Sprint" or "Not as cool as a real iPhone"
- The Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 promises to do just about everything, and oozes luxury. It'll cost a pretty penny when it launches in a few months.
- I was impressed with LG's new handsets, the AT&T Vu and Verizon enV(2) in particular. evV(2) is much sleeker and nicer in hand (and pocket) than the original, and will debut at a reasonable $129 price point.
- Most of the phones I really want aren't destined for US markets. LG's Viewty, SE's C902, and Nokia's N82 come to mind. Granted, they all can be used on US GSM networks, but they're limited to EDGE or GPRS data - no 3G on these beauties. Viewty's camera and touch screen are amazing, C902 packs a 5MP camera into an incredibly slim form factor, and the N82 is an imaging powerhouse. There's a trend here: Cell phones are on the verge of replacing consumer-level digital cameras. At least outside of the US.
- Free Gelato is good. Thanks, Yahoo!
More from the show tomorrow, and more video just as soon as we can upload it.
One last Instinct video covering GPS, Visual Voicemail, and the Calendar. Overall it's a really solid phone. And at $129? Best value goin' for Sprint customers wanting a high-end device. Too bad there's no calendar synching, though. Three hot touchscreen phones - which one's right for you? This is the loooong version of a head to head to head between Instinct, Vu, and iPhone. If you're not up for 15 in-depth minutes, check out the short version for the summary. Three hot touchscreen phones - which one's right for you? This is the short version of a head to head to head between Instinct, Vu, and iPhone. If you're up for 15 in-depth minutes, check out the looong version.
Sprint Just Announced It: Instinct will be $129.99 after rebate with a Two-Year "Simply Everything" Plan. Plans start at $69.99/month. Super aggressive pricing to compete with iPhone 3G, huh? YouTube, Music Player, Music Store, and Sprint Radio ... And a bit of a smackdown from iPhone (!) This video looks at multimedia on Instinct: Camera, Photos, Video Player, and some memory overload. Looks like it's snazzy with limited media loaded up, but gets bogged down by 100+ photos. From the Emerging Technology Awards area at CTIA 2008 Las Vegas last week, Noah recorded Unlocked episode #4. This episode highlights the best phones of the show, other successful devices, and a rumored 3G iPhone coming soon.
Taking top honors for consumer handsets was the Samsung Instinct followed by the Nokia N96. AT&T made an impact with their new TV devices, the LG Vu & Samsung Access.
We check out two more phones we wish would come to the US, including SE's new flagship Cyber-Shot handset, the C902. 5MP camera and a nifty touchscreen. Also, check out Paul Dateh on the hip-hop violin!
Noah goes hands on with the HTC Shift in this video, and learns what this CDMA version for the Sprint network can do. This ultramobile PC is a windows touchscreen device that uses Vista, and can run via WiFi or EVDO connection via Sprint. The HTC Shift also offers a Snap View interface which highlights your "day at a glance".
Hands-on with Sony Ericsson's new flagship Walkman phone, the w980. It's a flip with 8GB of memory and a crazy clear plastic edge with glowing lights. SE added a SensMe™ program to the W980 that allows for the consumer to tell the phone their current mood and then listen to specific music they have set.
It's like being in Vegas minus the unhealthy staying up too late, drinking too much, and losing money. Tour Samsung Mobile's CTIA booth with us. We wade through all the "Best in Show" awards at the Samsung booth to check out the new Access. It's a phone that supports AT&T's new mobile TV service and will be available in May. And it let me see Eddie House pick up a flagrant foul. Awesome.
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