Pocket PC Central News Center

Microsoft will begin shipping Windows 7 on October 22.  But today through July 11 in the United States and Canada, you can pre-order the Windows 7 operating system for as little as $49.

Like Vista, Windows 7 will be available in several flavors.  Windows 7 Home Premium is the edition most Vista users will likely want to upgrade to, but Windows 7 Professional (which includes an XP virtual machine) may be a better upgrade for some business users. 

The Home Premium upgrade discounted price is $49, but increase to $119 after the pre-order sale ends. The Professional upgrade pre-order price is $99, but will cost $199 post-discount.

We’ve been using Windows 7 (the Beta and the Release Candidate) for a few months and are very impressed by how solid it is even in the testing phase.  If you’re a Vista user and don’t plan on buying a new PC in the next year or so, get in on this 50% off sale before it’s over!

The Pocket PC Central: iPhone Edition Hands-On iPhone 3GS Review has been posted in the Review Center.

The new iPhone 3G S is faster than the iPhone 3G, twice as fast or more when opening applications and viewing large documents.  This is because the 3G S has a faster processor and more system memory.  There’s also a new 3MP camera which can shoot photos or video, and you can edit the video on the iPhone.  Voice Control allows you to make calls, control iTunes and more by pressing and holding the Home button and speaking commands. 

The new iPhone will be available in 16GB and 32GB capacities for $199 and $299 respectively.  The 8GB iPhone 3G will continue to be sold for $99.  Rather than July, as many had expected, the iPhone 3G S will launch on or around June 19th in the United States.

Today Apple announced its 3rd Generation iPod shuffle. The new shuffle has been redesigned and now lacks hardware playback control on the main device body, although there is a single switch for shuffle, repeat and off.  The clip is still there, too, so you can easily wear your iPod shuffle while you’re on the go.

Control of the 3G iPod shuffle is relegated to the earbud cord, which has a new control node for play, pause, skip, playlist selection and volume.  The new VoiceOver feature, which speaks track, artist and playlist information, is also activated by using this control.  The node’s single button performs multiple actions depending on the number and duration of presses.  Fortunately, there are dedicated up and down volume control buttons.

We’re happy to see that the new shuffle includes playlist support, but the single-button with the voice prompt control system seems like a lot of hoops to jump through to take the place of a simple display.  But, if you’re the type of person who just wants music and doesn’t much care about listening to a particular track at a particular time, the new shuffle should fit you just fine.

The 3G iPod shuffle is available today at the Apple Store in either silver or black and comes in one capacity, 4GB, which holds about 1000 songs.  The MSRP is $79.

It’s not a smartphone and it doesn’t run Windows Mobile, but Amazon’s new Kindle 2 wireless ebook reader has our attention; and it’s worth yours, too, if you’re a voracious reader.

The Kindle 2 has an improved E-Ink electronic paper display, more internal memory, better battery life and a new slimmed-down design.  Amazon has also increased the number of converted Kindle books to over 240,000.

Books and newspapers are downloaded over Sprint’s wireless network, the price of which is included in the book purchase price.  Want to read a book on the Kindle? Just purchase the title and have the complete text within a minute, without connecting to a PC.  

Unfortunately, the Kindle 2 has some downsides.  First, Amazon has removed the SD expansion card, although the reader does include more internal memory storage.  Also, the price decrease that many expected didn’t come – the Kindle 2 is still $359.

The new Kindle 2 reader is now shipping from Amazon.  We’ll post a review soon.

Today, Amazon announced the Kindle 2, the follow-up to the company’s first Kindle ebook reader released in late 2007. 

The 10-ounce Kindle 2 features a new, slim design (it’s about the thickness of a pencil), a re-thought key and button layout, 1.4GB of usable onboard memory (up from 180MB) for storage of up to 1500 books, 25% faster page-turns, 25% longer battery life and a 6-inch electronic paper display that can render four times the shades of gray (16 shades instead of 4).

There are currently 230,000 books available for purchase on the Kindle and Kindle 2 with more being added all the time. You can also subscribe to select newspapers and blogs on the Kindle.

There’s also a new Realspeak Solo text-to-speech feature on the Kindle 2 which allows the device to “read to” users aloud.  No word on how this affects battery life.

The one gray lining in this silver cloud: The Kindle 2 is still $359.  You can pre-order the Kindle 2 now.  The unit will begin shipping on February 24 – first come, first serve. 

Today at CES, Palm, Inc., announced the Palm Pre smartphone, an upcoming device which features a completely new mobile operating system called webOS. First impressions are powerful things, and I must say this one looks like a winner.

Of course, the proof of the smartphone is in the using, and we won’t be able to take the Pre for a test drive until it’s released sometime in Q2.  On paper, however, the Palm Pre is a jaw-dropper: a TI3 OMAP processor, 8GB of flash storage, EV-DO Rev. A, a sliding QWERTY keyboard, a 320 x 480 3.1-inch multi-touch display, GPS, 3MP digital camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth… and even a wireless charger featuring Touchstone wireless conductive technology.

As you can see, the new webOS is clearly a giant leap forward for Palm as the Palm OS is somewhere between old and ancient.  We don’t have a great many details on this new OS, but what we do know based on the Palm announcement is that it it relies heavily on Web technologies such as CSS, XHTML and JavaScript.

In the span of two days, we’ve seen two new BlackBerry Curve smartphone releases, one from AT&T Wireless and one from Sprint/Nextel.

The new AT&T offering, the BlackBerry Curve 8320, isn’t exactly new, but it is a newcomer to AT&T Wireless.  The Curve 8320 is a lot like the 8310, but with added Wi-Fi and no GPS.

The BlackBerry Curve 8350i, on the other hand, is brand-spakin’ new, and features support for Nextel’s Direct Connect push-to-talk service, Wi-Fi and aGPS.

Verizon Wireless has posted the BlackBerry Storm, RIM’s first touchscreen smartphone, to their web store. 

The BlackBerry Storm is $199 with a two-year service agreement and a $50 mail in rebate in the form of a debit card.

Read more about the BlackBerry Storm…

The new BlackBerry Bold Smartphone is now available from AT&T.  The final cost after a two-year service agreement and a $100 mail-in rebate is $299.

The Bold features onboard Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G network connectivity, 1GB of onboard flash memory, aGPS and a 2MP digital camera.

Read more about the BlackBerry Bold

Visit the AT&T Mobility web site

Much of this year’s iPod news was a snore: a curvier iPod touch, a new one-capacity iPod Classic, the umpteenth iPod shuffle color jumble. Yawn. But the fourth and final updated iPod, the new 4th Generation (4G) iPod nano, caught our eye. It’s small. It’s light. It’s sexy. And, with the 4G iPod nano, Apple has righted itself after a design misstep.

Read the Pocket PC Central 4th Generation iPod nano Review.

The first Android-powered smartphone is now a reality.  The long-awaited T-Mobile G1 was made official this morning, giving us our up close look at an Android handset.

The T-Mobile G1 is built by HTC (it’s the HTC Dream) and features a HVGA touchscreen display, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth (without A2DP stereo support), UMTS/HSDPA wireless broadband, a 3MP camera, GPS and microSD expansion.

Read all about the T-Mobile G1 Android Smartphone here…

As expected, Apple showed off its 4th Generation iPod nano today for the first time. Although much about the new player had been leaked last week (including photos), the official news is certainly garnering a lot of interest.

The new 4G iPod nano sports a tall, thin design more like the 1st and 2nd Gen nanos, but with a curvier and thinner design.  Added features include more storage (up to 16GB), an accelerometer for side to side and shake control, an updated UI and a new range of colors. 

Perhaps the best news concerns the new iPod’s price.  The 8GB nano sells for $149, while the 16GB is only $199.  A welcome price reduction to be sure.  Available for purchase now.

Apple also announced a slightly updated iPod touch 2G.  New features of the 2G touch include hardware volume controls and improved battery life.