Gadgets

Yesterday’s Apple event wasn’t all about the iPad 2. If you have any of Apple’s existing iOS devices, there’s something for you, too.

First, there’s iOS 4.3, which brings some goodies for all iDevices. Really though, this release feels more like a bug-fix release, and adds in the features — like full AirPlay support — that were supposed to be in iOS 4 all along.

If Google had executed Google Wave correctly, it would’ve looked something like Beluga, a cross-platform group chat client available for Android phones, iPhones and any computer with a web browser.

The free service has a streamlined interface for group chatting. Conversations are called “Pods,” so when you start chatting with a friend you create a Pod, and then you invite others to join it.

On the Beluga smartphone apps, inside a Pod you can send messages and photos extremely quickly. If you choose to share your location, Beluga displays a map with your coordinates below each of your messages, so you can let your friends know where you are.

Whenever you receive a message, Beluga sends a push notification to your Android device or iPhone; the app is running in the background so you can stay signed on constantly. In this way, Beluga could be a free substitute for text messaging, if you get enough of your friends hooked on it.

Microsoft released the first update to Windows Phone 7 Monday, but rather than improve things, it fails to install for some customers — and for an unlucky few, it actually bricks their phones.

The glitch affects the Samsung Omnia 7 and possibly the Samsung Focus, according to Ars Technica. In some cases, the ten-step (!) installation process fails on step seven, prompting a reboot but not damaging the phone.

It seems like every time I see cool new gadget these days, I click the link and end up at Kickstarter. Is it really possible that individuals are coming up with better ideas, and getting them to the market faster, than big corporations with big R^D budgets? It seems so.

Today on the Gadget Lab Kickstarter Showcase is the WALdok. As a combination of plug-in charger, speaker and iDevice dock, it was impossible that I not write about it. So here goes:

The WALdok is a speaker that plugs straight into the wall.

BARCELONA — Amid the fuss about Samsung’s new ten-inch Galaxy Tab and the Galaxy S 2 cellphone, an even more interesting product has gotten somewhat lost: A five-inch Wi-Fi-only mini-tablet, called the Galaxy S Wi-Fi 5.0.

The thin little media-player is somewhere between the already wrong-sized 7-inch Galaxy Tab and the regular Galaxy S cellphone, only without the phone or 3G parts of either. For such an odd product –- kind of like the too-tall, gawky girl from school –- it’s actually pretty great.

Google has released the Google Translate app for the iPhone, bringing the live voice translation feature from Android to iOS. You should try it out: it’s hilarious.

The free app can be used to translate typed words between any of 50 different languages, and you can also hit a button and speak to the app in 15 languages, whereupon your words are “recognized”, transcribed and then piped into the translation engine.

With the new Wi-Fi hot-spotting feature in the Verizon iPhone which – will almost certainly be coming to GSM iPhones – there’s one less reason to jailbreak your device. Sharing your 3G connection with your laptop or Wi-Fi-only iPad was possibly the number-one goal of jailbreakers.

Still, that hasn’t stopped the hackers, and the latest way to crack your iPhone is Greenpois0n, a tether-free jailbreak for iOS 4.2.1, the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system.

Heads up high-speed data fans — more carrier-exclusive smartphone and tablet offerings are headed your way.

On Wednesday morning, T-Mobile announced its Galaxy S 4G smartphone and G-Slate tablet. The phone will be available sometime this month (we’re speculating a release in conjunction with the forthcoming Mobile World Congress), while the tablet has an even more vague drop date of “spring” availability. Neither have confirmed price points as of yet.

The Samsung-manufactured Galaxy S 4G isn’t drastically different from its 3G predecessor, the Vibrant. It’s got a 4-inch capacitive touch screen (like the Vibrant), a 1-GHz Hummingbird processor (see: Vibrant), plus a 5-megapixel camera capable of capturing 720p video and a pre-installed 16-GB microSD card (Vibrant, Vibrant, Vibrant).

In fact, except for the newly-installed front facing VGA camera for video chat and 4G-capable ST-Ericsson radio, this thing ain’t much different than a Vibrant. (The 4G does, however, come with Inception loaded onto the phone in its entirety, instead of Avatar, like the Vibrant.)

But Samsung’s first Galaxy series of smartphones did break the 10 million sales mark in early January, so popularity and user-familiarity could outweigh a lack of product innovation.

MSI’s Wind Pad is finally on sale, hoping to have the same success it enjoyed with the MSI Wind netbook, only without the netbook’s low, low price. The Wind Pad will cost $710, which is at the high-end for a 10-inch tablet. But then, it’s not really a tablet in the modern sense. It’s much more like a netbook version of those bulky old tablet PCs we used to know and hate.

Verizon’s personal hotspot feature for the iPhone 4 will cost subscribers an extra $20 per month on top of their regular data plan. This is the same pricing structure you get with Verizon’s other smart-phones.

There has been speculation that Verizon would stick it to AT&T by offering the hotspot feature – which lets you share your internet connection with up to five devices via Wi-Fi – for free.