- Nokia N85 hits FCC in two flavors, one with just a touch of North American 3G
We’re still trying to figure out exactly how Nokia intends to position the N85 slider in its Nseries lineup, and frankly, the FCC documentation that’s been outed for it isn’t helping much. Seems there are two versions of the thing: one with no 3G — likely for China — and another with WCDMA on the 900, 1900, and 2100MHz frequencies. That little dose of 1900 in there will be enough to give owners partial access to 3G while out ‘n about in the colonies, but by and large, the phone appears destined for Europe where 2100 (and to a lesser extent, 900) is the name of the game. Both do quadband EDGE, so at the very least, you’ll be able to roam the better part of the globe and get some semblance of coverage — just don’t expect it to be particularly speedy everywhere you go. To be fair, Espoo’s been getting pretty good about crafting special versions of its hottest handsets that are ripe for North American use, so we’re not giving up hope just yet that there’s a third version floating out there.
The editor-in-chief giveaway: Win Ryan Block’s swag
You know, when you’re the editor-in-chief of a site like Engadget, you tend to accumulate a lot of stuff. Companies send you all kinds of interesting promotional materials, gadgets, swag, etc. It’s great. Sometimes, though, you just let it pile up in your living room for years and years, then, when a new editor-in-chief takes over, you send all that stuff to him in about ten huge boxes. Luckily, we’ve got a way of dealing with this other than just throwing it in storage — we’re giving a ton of it away. That’s right, you could be one of the lucky readers to win a massive stash of gear recently jettisoned toward New York by Mr. Ryan Block. Here’s just a few things that are up for grabs in this (final) round:
I Am Legend (DVD), Apple iPod shuffle Sport Case, set of Zune Originals art prints, Energizer cellphone charger, Super Mario Galaxy X-mas stocking and ornament, Lair fake Zippo lighter, Heavenly Sword letter opener, Hot Shots golf balls, Nokia beer cozy, stuffed TiVo toy, Pursuit Force glove and sunglasses, plus at least four backpacks / bags filled with all kinds of funky stuff!
Interested? Here are the rules:
- Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but a description of what percentage you plan to keep versus what you’ll have to sell off, or any fond memory of a Ryan Block post is good too.
- You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
- If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you’ll be fine.
- Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
- Winner will be chosen randomly. That winner will get a massive amount of swag. Packages represent a brief history of Ryan Block’s tenure as editor-in-chief. Approximate value is incalculable (but no more than $600).
- Entries can be submitted until Friday, August 29th, 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
- Full rules can be found here.
Don’t like swag? You can still enter the drawing to win a bunch of Ryan’s gadgets or some totally sweet video games.
Dear Palm: It’s time for an intervention
Man, what a crazy year, right? We know things haven’t really been going your way lately, but we want you to know that we haven’t given up on you, even though it might seem like the only smartphone anyone wants to talk about these days is the iPhone. It can be hard to remember right now, but you used to be a company we looked to for innovation. You guys got handhelds right when everyone else, including Apple, was struggling to figure it out. And it was the little things that made those early Palm Pilots great — you could tell that someone had gone to a lot of trouble to think about what made for a great mobile experience, like how many (or rather, few) steps it took to perform common tasks.
The problem is that lately we haven’t seen anything too impressive out of you guys. Sure, over the past few years the Treo has emerged as a cornerstone of the smartphone market, but you’ve let the platform stagnate while nearly everyone (especially Microsoft and HTC, Symbian and Nokia, RIM, and Apple) has steadily improved their offerings. So we’ve thrown together a few ideas for how Palm can get back in the game and (hopefully) come out with a phone that people can care about. (And we’re not talking about the Centro / Gandolf.) Read on.
Tags: Nokia Cell Phones