Romo’s Hardware

A motorized, acrylic base with an accessory port that can be controlled by any smartphone (or iPod Touch).
Rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery
USB Charging cable
Analog circuitry with two motor outputs, compatible with any phone that can emit the right frequencies to drive the motors

Romo’s Software

Romo’s software will downloadable though the iTunes app store and Android Market. Since Romo is a “true” robot, he’s infinitely programmable, and can be made to do just about anything. However, at first Romo will come with the following applications:

RomoRemote: Turn Romo into an awesome spy robot. Ever wished you can be in two places at once or spy on someone? You can do that with Romo. You can see where Romo is going via the smartphone camera and send audio “shout-outs”.
Romo Kart: Race against your friends in a mixed-reality version of the classic Mario Kart game. You can send digital attacks and have your friend’s robot spin out of control. You can also disable their power, deflect bombs, and reverse their controls as you race towards the finish line!
Drag and Drop Programming Module: You can program Romo right on your smartphone and watch him execute your commands. Features of the drag and drop programming app includes: movement, conditional statements, loops, and reference to other functions.

http://romotive.com/

HTC Thunderbolt Specifications:

* 4.3 inch WVGA display
* 480 x 800 pixels resolution
* Android 2.2 (FroYo) OS
* 1 GHz Snapdragon processor
* HTC Sense 2.0 with Fast Boot
* Built-in kickstand
* Wi-Fi
* 4G LTE Connectivity
* Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
* 8-megapixel camera
* HD (720p) video recording
* Dolby Mobile
* SRS surround sound
* Mobile Hotspot capability
* MicroSD card slot
* 32 GB expandable memory
* 32 GB microSD card included
* 3.5 mm headset jack
* Fully integrated Skype
* DLNA streaming multimedia support

HTC G2 Highlights:
1. Ability To Achieve 4G Speed.
2. Android 2.2 OS
3. Access to More Than 80,000 Applications on Android Market
4. Integrated With Google Voice
5. Integrated With Voice Actions features of Google Search
6. Built-in; GMail, Google Maps, YouTube and Google Earth
7. HD Video Camera
8. 5 Mega-pixel Camera with LED Flash
9. Microsoft Exchange Email
10. Pre-Installed 8GB microSD Memory Card
Update: BestBuy stores just announced that the pre-sales for the HTC G2 would start from Friday. $199 with a two year contract is what it is offering for the latest and we might want to say the fastest smartphone. BestBuy also revealed that HTC G2 would be available in store from October 6.

The capacitive scren will give the Nokia N8 a slick feel and Symbian^3 uses widgets to make your home screens fully customisable. You can shove whatever you like on your home screen — from clocks and weather reports to Twitter feeds and RRS news updates. But will it feel as good as Android? Stay tuned for the review to find out.

12-megapixel camera
Here’s the big one. The Nokia N8 probably has the best mobile phone camera ever made. Ever. As has been said many times before, it’s not all about the megapixels. What gets us more excited about the Nokia N8’s snapper is its extra-large sensor. At 1/1.83″, it’s the biggest sensor seen in a mobile phone. It even beats some dedicated compact cameras.

This should offer better image quality than you’ve seen before in a camera phone, while the Xenon flash gives more even lighting than an LED alternative. 720p video recording is in too. If you want one singlular reason to buy the Nokia N8, it’s the camera. Simple as that.

Screen
Nokia’s Nseries held onto resistive touchscreens for way too long. The Nokia N900 used one, as did the Nokia N97 Mini. Thankfully, the Nokia N8 uses a capacitive screen, as used in other top-range smartphones like the iPhone 4 and HTC Desire.

It’s a 3.5-inch screen that uses the same high-quality AMOLED tech used in the fab HTC Legend. This offers better contrast and colour reproduction than TFT rivals, including — wait for it — the iPhone 4. It doesn’t have the iPhone 4’s pixel density, but what do you prefer, picture quality or image sharpness?

Power and memory
The Nokia N8 leaves most Android rivals eating dust in memory terms. With 16GB of internal memory as standard, you’ll have enough for thousands of songs plus a couple of movies on top. This is one multimedia-friendly phone.

The engine, or CPU, isn’t quite as impressive, but it’s all about how the power’s used, not how much is in there. The Nokia N8 uses an ARM 11 680MHz CPU, with a hardware graphics accelerator. It doesn’t sound quite as beefy as the Samsung Galaxy S’s 1GHz processor, but we’ll wait for our hands-on test before making any judgements. Software optimisation can often give better results than raw power alone.

The bod
The Nokia N8’s body is coated with metal, for that robust feel we loved in the Google Nexus One. It’s still light though — at 135g it’s a similar weight to the HTC Desire. Just 12mm thick, it’s no more portly than its rivals too, which is an unusual change for Nokia. Its Nseries devices have traditionally been on the chunky side.

The Nokia N8 comes in a handful of colours, including black/dark grey, silver, green, orange and blue.

Video skills
Given the amount of raw power that many smartphones have access to, its sad to see how few of them pack-in real video potential. The Nokia N8 has its video skills down, like a pro. Its list of supported codecs is fab, with DivX, XviD, H.263, H.264, MP4 and WMV on-board, and — here’s the golden egg — it has an HDMI output, so you can watch your Nokia N8’s videos on your TV, without faffing about with Wi-Fi streaming or memory cards.

With integrated Google technology, the Fascinate brings one-touch access to the popular Google mobile services millions use every day, including Google Search by voice, Google Maps with Street View, GTalk instant messaging (with presence capabilities), YouTube, and Picasa. The Fascinate also provides easy access to both personal and corporate e-mail, calendars, and contacts supported by Exchange Server and Gmail. And through Android Market, you’ll get access to thousands of useful applications, widgets and fun games to download and install on your phone, with many more apps being added every day.

The Fascinate has a large 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen display that provides brighter, thinner, and higher-resolution than traditional screens. Samsung’s innovative display technology makes watching movies, viewing videos and playing games come to life like never before, even in bright light and outdoor environments. And messaging is simple and easy with the Fascinate’s virtual QWERTY keyboard with Swype technology, which allows you to input text faster and in a more intuitive way with one continuous finger motion across the screen keyboard.

At 0.39 inches (9.9mm) thin, the Fascinate is the thinnest Android smartphone on the market, and it packs in a 2 GB internal memory plus pre-installed 16 GB microSD card (with compatibility for optional cards up to 32 GB in size). Other features include a 5-megapixel camera/camcorder with auto-focus and HD video recording (720p resolution), fast Wireless-N Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g), Bluetooth 3.0 technology for hands-free devices and stereo music streaming, and just under 6 hours of talk time.
Samsung Social Hub

Offering one-stop shopping for all your updates, the Samsung Social Hub all your social networking services, messages, personal and business e-mail, calendars and contacts. It’s built around Messaging and Contacts, both of which initiate the sending and receiving of information–whether it is e-mail, instant messaging, social network updates or SMS messages. Additionally, calendar information from portal calendars, such as Google Calendar, and social networking services are displayed together in one calendar with two-way synchronization.

The familiar text messaging experience is enhanced with group messaging and “reply all” functionality for up to 10 contacts, a threaded conversations format, a consolidated inbox, and enhanced multi-media display.

Key Features

* Fast 3G connectivity thanks to the reliable Verizon Wireless EV-DO, Rev A network
* GPS navigation capabilities via VZ Navigator service plus Bing Maps and Google Maps (available via Android Market)
* Ultra-fast Wireless-N Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g/n) for accessing home and corporate networks as well as hotspots while on the go.
* 3G Mobile Hotspot capability allows you to create a Wi-Fi hotspot using your Verizon Wireless 3G EV-DO connection, which can then be shared among up to five Wi-Fi-capable devices. The 3G Mobile Hotspot is the perfect family vacation companion, and at $20 for 2 GB and 5 cents per megabyte overage, it provides an allowance big enough for sharing with the entire family for downloading games, Internet access, and more.
* Powered by the Android operating system (version 2.1) with deep integration of Google services and access to thousands of apps to customize your phone via the Android Market.
* 1 GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor speeds up everything–from playing games to watching shows to opening files from work.
* Swype input system allows you to input text faster and easier by gliding your finger around the keyboard, moving from letter to letter in one continuous motion. The Swype technology then calculates what word you’re intending to type (learn more below).
* Samsung Social Hub provides one stop for all your updates integrates all your social networking services, messages, personal and business e-mail, calendars and contacts.
* 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen display (480 x 800 pixels, 16 million color depth) is one of the thinnest, most responsive full-featured smartphones in the industry.
* 2 GB internal memory
* Pre-loaded 16 GB microSD card with support for optional cards up to 32 GB.
* 5.0-megapixel camera with auto-focus and LED flash.
* HD video recording (720p) plus easy upload to YouTube.
* Multi-format digital audio player compatible with MP3, WMA, and AAC/AAC+/eAAC+ formats
* Blockbuster movie rentals and purchases
* DivX video playback
* Next-generation Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity provides faster throughput while minimizing on power requirements. It’s compatible with new Bluetooth 3.0-enabled devices as well as backward compatible with older Bluetooth-enabled peripherals such as headsets and printers. It includes profiles for communication headset, hands-free car kits, and the A2DP Bluetooth profile–enabling you to wirelessly stream your music to a pair of compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones or speaker dock.
* YouTube app for streaming video over 3G and Wi-Fi connections.
* DLNA compatibility allows you to stream media content from the phone to any other DLNA‐certified device. The AllShare application enables you to play a file from your phone on another player, play a file from a server on your phone, or play a file from a server on another player via your phone.
* Rich HTML e-mail application seamlessly syncs your e-mail, calendar and contacts from Gmail as well as most other POP3 or IMAP e-mail services. The Gmail application provides features such as conversation view, spam filtering, search, and labels that Gmail users enjoy on their computer while offering new features such as integration with the phone’s contact list. And it multitasks, so you can read a Web page while also downloading your e-mail in the background.
* Full HTML Web browser enables you to view more pages and enjoy better Web content delivered efficiently to your phone.
* Instant messaging support for Google Talk, as well as AOL, Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger. It also supports advanced text messaging features, enabling you to easily flag, delete or move groups of messages and keep track of group conversations through threaded text messaging.
* Text (SMS) and picture/video (MMS) messaging
* Google Calendar app syncs with the Web-based version, so any event that you add to your phone will show up on the Web-based Google Calendar (and vice versa).
* Airplane mode allows you to listen to music while the cellular connectivity is turned off
* 3.5mm headphone jack
* TTY compatible
* Hearing Aid Compatibility = M4

Vital Statistics

The Samsung Fascinate weighs 4.16 ounces and measures 4.92 x 2.53 x 0.39 inches. Its lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 7 hours of talk time, and up to 312 hours (13 days) of standby time. It runs on the CDMA 800/1900 frequencies as well as EV-DO, Rev A 3G frequencies.

Amazon Links
Samsung Fascinate Android Phone (Verizon Wireless)

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/

Camera – with flash
We have our reservations about the BlackBerry Torch 9800’s camera, but one thing we’re very glad of is its flash. We find the times you want to use your camera phone the most are when you’re out with your friends, and want to capture a moment without having thought to bring a “proper” camera along with you, and if that’s anywhere near sunset and you don’t have a flash, you’re done for.

Universal Search
This new feature of BlackBerry OS 6 is one that’s likely to work its way under your skin gradually. You might think you’ll never use it, only to find that it becomes the backbone of your web-browsing ways. It lets you find what you want right from your BlackBerry Torch 9800’s home screen, removing the need to trawl across phone menus for a browser, YouTube or Facebook app. A real time saver.

BlackBerry Messenger
Unless you’re a BlackBerry fan already, you may not have heard of BlackBerry Messenger, but it’s one of the true unique selling points of a BlackBerry. It lets you chat freely and easily with all your BlackBerry-owning friends, share files with them and even converse in crowds of up to 30 with Groups.

New media player
More proof that the BlackBerry Torch 9800 is the “funnest” BlackBerry ever, the new BlackBerry OS 6 media player offers Cover Flow-style graphics, to bring album art to your BlackBerry’s screen. Basic navigation of your library is the same as ever, but now you can also flick through your album covers too. Just make sure your MP3 collection’s album art is updated.

At-your-fingertips notifications
BlackBerry OS 6 is incredibly efficient at making your day-to-day info easy to access, and the pinnacle of this is the notifications bar, which tells you about new emails, texts, Facebook, Twitter and Social Feed updates from a glance. With the BlackBerry Torch 9800, you can simply tap on this bar to bring up a full-page summary of the latest goings-on. It’s fan-berry-tastic.

Best BlackBerry touchscreen yet
The BlackBerry Torch 9800 isn’t the first BlackBerry touchscreen, but we’re pretty sure it’s the best. Previous BlackBerry touch phones were part of the Storm series, which used an odd kind of haptic feedback that made it feel as though you were actually pushing the screen in. It was very clever, relying on motors underneath the screen, but with hindsight we’d rather have a standard capacitive touchy-feely phone.

Ace Qwerty
The keyboard of the BlackBerry Torch 9800 is based on the Bold design — a series widely regarded as having some of the best mobile phone keyboards ever made. The Torch’s Qwerty is a shade smaller than the BlackBerry Bold 9700’s, but with the same contouring, you’ll be touch typing away happily before too long.

Social Feeds — SNS nirvana
Our favourite bit of the BlackBerry Torch 9800 is the new way it copes with social networking. Realising that SNS updates are just as important as text messages to many technophile smartphone users, the BlackBerry Torch 9800 lets you view all your updates, from FaceBook, Twitter and your SMS buddies, in one stream. YOu can do the same with direct messages too, without having to dance around a dozen different apps or webpages.

Why so different? The HTC Desire HD is based on the US market’s HTC Evo 4G, so the link to the HTC Desire is as much about marketing as being part of a handset family. One big bonus about the new boy is the unibody design — the body’s made largely out of a single piece of aluminium, like the HTC Legend.

Android 2.2 – the way to go
It never seems like your Android phone stays up-to-date for too long at the moment, with waits for updates spanning months, but the HTC Desire HD will ship with the latest version of the OS, Android 2.2. Android 2.2’s top additions include SD card app installations, so you no longer have to rely entirely on internal memory, and full Flash support. Wave Flash Lite goodbye, the real deal is here.

Snapdragon power
Qualcomm is prepping the next iterations of its Snapdragon mobile processor as you read this, but the HTC Desire HD will rock the current popular 1GHz model. Worth crying over?

Not at all — Android 2.2 runs lightning-fast with a 1GHz Snapdragon, and few, if any, apps make use of the Snapdragon’s power. The main bonus that the new dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon will be able to playback 1080p vids. Not much use unless you have a TV that can handle it too…

Biggest screen on the block
The HTC Desire HD uses a massive 4.3-inch AMOLED screen, using a capacitive touchscreen layer. After the Dell Streak was labelled as more of a tablet than a phone, despite having phone functions, we’ve learnt that a 5-inch screen is just too big for many people to accept as a phone.

A 4.3-incher? We’ve seen such dimensions accepted by the mobile phone public before, with the HTC HD2 and (less successfully) the Toshiba TG01. The HTC Desire HD is almost certainly going to be the most accessible 4.3-inch screen phone yet too, helped along by its link to the now-popular HTC Desire. It’ll still find the most favour with the techie crowd, but this is no obtuse Windows Mobile phone like the Toshiba TG01.

Camera skills
Android phones of the past two years have re-iterated that megapixels don’t mean everything when it comes to camera quality. The HTC Desire HD features an impressive-sounding 8-megapixel camera with a dual-LED flash and (obviously) autofocus. The previous 5-megapixel camera of the HTC Desire couldn’t stand up to many 5-megapixel rivals in image quality terms, but will the Desire HD be the same?

The best way to predict quality is to look at the HTC Evo 4G. US reviewers reported that low-light performance was often quite iffy, but that under good lighting conditions, it can produce fab shots. It’s also capable of capturing 720p HD video. It’s unlikely to be able to square-up to phones with a real focus on their cameras, like the Nokia N8, but it should prove to be near the very top of the Android camera phone tree.

Built-in bits
At this level, you can expect a whole lot to be included in your phone as standard — Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, readily expandable memory (iPhones excluded, of course). Everything you’d expect is included too, with a bonus of 4GB of internal memory, which you can then cheaply expand to 36GB with a microSD card.