Nokia recalls 14 million chargers
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Nokia recalled 14 million mobile phone chargers today due to risk of electric shock. The charger models affected are the AC-3E and AC-3U, manufactured between June 15, 2009 and August 9, 2009 and the AC-4U manufactured between April 13, 2009 and October 25, 2009 produced by Chinese company BYD. The recall does not affect models in China, Britain, Argentina or Brazil.
Verizon unveils Motorola Droid [UPDATE]
Verizon unveiled the hotly-anticipated Motorola Droid smartphone, available for $199 with a two-year contract beginning November 6th. Featuring a 3.7-inch 16:9 touchscreen, a 5-megapixel camera, and all the normal trimmings, the Droid comes with Android 2.0, bringing Facebook integration, voice-activated search, and a physical keyboard.
UPDATE: Some Verizon stores will be opening an hour early for the Droid release on friday.
Opera Mini’s rendering servers reach 500 Million Pageviews
MobileCrunch has gotten its hands on some of Opera's data for a press release regarding its "Mini" phone browser. According to the data, its rendering servers are reaching up to 500 million pageviews per day from 32 million active users as of date, a feat largely capable by the browser's ability to render pages with Opera's server-side software.
Firefox coming to Nokia and Android devices
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Mozilla confirmed plans to bring Firefox to the Android and Nokia devices, operating on the Nokia Maemo and Android NDK platforms. "We had to wait for a while for devices to get better to handle this modern browser," said Mozilla CEO John Lilly. There is no release schedule mentioned.
Sidekick outage especially frustrating for deaf users
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For those who depend on mobile email the way any cell phone user depends on the ability to make calls, the T-Mobile Sidekick's recent data outage left them in the dark. The server crash was particularly alarming for deaf users, whose Sidekicks are the most valuable all-in-one tool for independent everyday communication. The Sidekick has historically enjoyed a strong following among the deaf, thanks to its full QWERTY keyboard, email and texting capabilities, smooth compatibility with relay services, and a data-only option that eliminates voice minutes costs.
Walmart begins no-contract $45 unlimited mobile service
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On October 18th, Walmart will roll out its no-contract Straight Talk wireless service, starting at $35. Straight Talk will have a 1,000 minute / 1,000 text message / 30MB plan for $35 and unlimited everything for only $10 more. Both plans include free 411 and nationwide roaming. Straight Talk will be sold on LG phones ranging from $39.98 to $99.88.
PowerPak cell phone charger also supplies backup power
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CrunchGear reports that Technocel will begin selling the PowerPak wall charger which doubles as portable backup power source on November 1st. The $50 unit charges itself while also juicing up your phone, eliminating the step of keeping another device charged. The PowerPak supports USB connections and comes with device-specific tips to provide 3 hours of talk time.
Best Buy launches free mobile phone backup service
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Best Buy announced plans to launch a mobile phone backup service to compete against MobileMe from Apple and MyPhone from Microsoft. The free service, called mIQ, will allow users to backup their "photos, video, contact, calendar information and SMS messages" as long as they don't exceed 1GB.
World’s thinnest solar panels now available worldwide
Sharp is ramping up manufacturing of its thinnest solar panels ever, to make them available to all companies that want to implement them. The panels, usually tacked on to Japanese cellphones, provide up to 300mW of power in direct light.