The wait has finally ended. Sony Ericsson has announced that the highly anticipated K850i Cyber-shot phone is available in all Asia-Pacific markets at a recommended retail price of about $617 (without plan).
We’ve just received our commercial review unit and a full review of the 5-megapixel camera phone will be coming up early next week. For now, you can check out our initial hands-on examination of the K850i here. And While you’re at it, check out our first-look video too.
Alex Rodriguez may have filed the papers, but the New York Yankees are the ones asking for a divorce.
Rodriguez, the heavy favorite to win the American League’s MVP award, filed for free agency Monday, a day after informing the Yankees he is opting out of his contract.
He is leaving a record $81 million on the table that was due to him over the next three years in his original 10-year, $252 million contract. Agent Scott Boras is convinced he will not only receive a longer contract, but one that’ll pay him in excess of $30 million a year, suggesting that a 10-year, $500 million offer wouldn’t be far-fetched.
“It sounds to me that either he didn’t want to be there, or Scott Boras has somebody else lined up,” said Reggie Jackson special advisor to owner George Steinbrenner. Read the rest of this entry »
Symbian-Guru has the scoop on not one, but two unannounced new high-end Nokia handsets, the N81 (pictured on the left) and the N82 (pictured on the right).
The slider-style N81 looks it’ll be the successor to their N91 musicphone (except less, uh, busted-looking) and sport a full 8GB of memory, a 2.4-inch QVGA display, quad-band EDGE and 2100MHz HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The N82 has a more traditional candybar form-factor and’ll have a five megapixel camera with Xenon flash and auto-focus Carl Zeiss lens, quad-band GSM (doesn’t say whether it’ll be GRPS or EDGE, but we’re guessing EDGE), 2100MHz HSDPA, a 2.4-inch QVGA display, Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi, integrated GPS, FM tuner, and a microSD memory card slot.
Doesn’t sound like either will be out until Q4 of this year.
Carrie Underwood, “Carnival Ride”
After a debut album that sold 6 million-plus copies, Carrie Underwood is under significant pressure to keep the momentum going. The Oklahoman delivers in spades on her sophomore effort, on which she was much more involved in the creative process. First single “So Small,” No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, is a soaring song about the important things in life. “Just a Dream” is the tale of the death of a young soldier from the perspective of his girl back home, while “Last Name,” about a drunken flirtation that turns into a Vegas marriage, is a fun diversion. Underwood provides a growling and gritty vocal on the defiant “Flat on the Floor” and convincingly covers Randy Travis’ 1988 hit “I Told You So,” which has long deserved a second life.
Britney Spears, “Blackout”
There’s an appropriate bleakness to Britney Spears’ first album in four years, and her first as a tabloid figure rather than a vibrant teen idol. The hazy-eyed bump-and-grind of her “Gimme More” MTV Video Music Awards performance fits all this material: It’s defiant like a bad drunk, uncomfortably oversexed and more at home in a seedy after-hours club than a celebrity ultra-lounge. The music ranges from shockingly minimal — “Piece of Me” and “Radar” have the synth fugues and smudgy bass of current underground electro and little else — to novelty pop, like the J.J. Fad-styling of “Freakshow” and Gwen Stefani-ripping snare march of “Toy Soldier.” Spears is threatening or seducing, or both, on every track. This is still pop, but the last bits of Spears’ song-and-dance girl veneer are cracking, along with the rest of her public persona.
Technology on the move 