kyocera

NEW YORK--After weeks of teasing an "industry first," Sprint finally took the wraps off its secret project and unveiled the Kyocera Echo, the first dual touch-screen smartphone, at a special event in New York today.

Available later this spring for $199.99 with a two-year contract, the Kyocera Echo boasts two 3.5-inch WVGA touch screens and a "pivot hinge" that allows you to place the two displays side by side to form a larger 4.7-inch display. In development for more than a year and a half (even longer for the hardware), the Echo runs Android 2.2 and features software that is optimized to take advantage of the two screens.

There are actually four modes in which you can use the Android 2.2 device: standard, tablet, optimized, and simultasking. In standard mode, you can use the Echo as a traditional touch-screen smartphone. The pivot hinge allows you to tuck the second display under the first, so you can navigate and operate the handset like many of today's latest devices. Meanwhile, tablet mode lets you view and interact with an app on both screens.

The optimized and simultask modes are a little more advanced in their capabilities. The former supports a single app and gives you the main view on one screen, and the app's complementary features and functionality on the second screen. For example, if you're checking e-mail, you'll get a view of your full inbox on one side of the screen, and the second will give display the full text of a selected message. Another example is the photo gallery. You can get a full view of a photo on the top screen and a thumbnail photo gallery on the bottom.

However, the simultask mode is where the Echo's true attraction might lie. In this mode, you'll be able to take multitasking to a new level as you'll be able to use two apps concurrently with each displayed on one of the dual touch screens.… Read more

Other links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

AOL buys The Huffington Post

Sony uses Super Bowl ad to officially announce the Xperia Play

Motorola Xoom pricing

The NASDAQ hacked

New Canon dSLRs

Sprint's New York event is today and the carrier promises to reveal another "industry first." For weeks, the tech community has tried to guess what that industry first might be but for once, it looked like a company was going to escape the usual leaks and spoilers. But not so fast.

A new report by Wall Street Journal says Sprint will reveal a dual touch-screen smartphone by Kyocera at this afternoon's press event. Citing a source familiar with the situation, the Android device will be called the Kyocera Echo and sport two 3.5-inch touch screens. … Read more

If you use your phone primarily for making calls, you might not need unlimited text and data services. If so, you might be the sort of customer who would buy Virgin Mobile's latest handset, the Kyocera S2100, recently launched under its cheaper PayLo prepaid service. The S2100 is as basic as it gets, with only a VGA camera and Bluetooth, though it does allow limited Web and e-mail functionality with Yahoo Mail, Gmail, AOL, and Windows Live mail access.

The Virgin Mobile PayLo plan lets you have 1,500 anytime minutes, 500 messages, and 10MB Web access for $30. … Read more

Kyocera yesterday released a new cell phone for Cricket Wireless. The Rio E1300 can't quite match Kyocera's recent Zio M6000, but it's no basic handset, either.

The candy bar device's 2.8-inch touch screen will be your primary interface point. Below are a few physical controls including dedicated music player buttons, but there's no physical keyboard for messaging. Features include a 1.3-megapixel camera, a music player, a microSD card slot, stereo Bluetooth, links to Cricket Navigator, a speakerphone, voice dialing, 1GB of internal memory, messaging and e-mail, a personal organizer, and support for Cricket'… Read more

Though it's now property of Kyocera, the Sanyo brand continues to live on at the carrier it has called home for many years. Sprint today announced the Sanyo Innuendo, a messaging-friendly handset with a full QWERTY keyboard.

An update to last year's Sanyo Incognito, the Innuendo borrows heavily from its predecessor's design. On the outside, there's a touch keypad with vibrating feedback and a small external display that's hidden when the backlight is off. We weren't huge fans of that arrangement on the Incognito, but we're willing to give it a second chance … Read more

After a short period for preorders, Cricket's first Android smartphone is now officially on sale. You can get the Sanyo Zio, aka the Kyocera Zio, for $249 with Cricket's no-contract service. To go with the phone, Cricket also is offering a $55 per-month service plan that includes unlimited talk, text, picture mail, Web browsing, e-mail, and international text.

As we've said since the handset's introduction earlier this year, the Zio's feature set includes a 3.2-megapixel camera, a video player with 30 frames per second, Wi-Fi, voice dialing, a music player, a digital compass, a … Read more

Three weeks after teasing us with a promo of its first Android handset, we finally get pricing and a release date for the Sanyo Zio. The Zio, which will ship by August 21, is $229 if you place a preorder on Cricket's Web site. The full price without the Web discount is an additional $20, but keep in mind that Cricket won't make you sign a contract.

It was originally known as the Kyocera Zio M6000 when it made its debut earlier this year at CTIA; Kyocera owns the Sanyo brand. The Zio is a touch-screen device with … Read more

Regional carrier Cricket Wireless announced a slew of news today that include new all-inclusive rate plans and that it is adding 15--yes, 15--new devices to its lineup.

The new rate plans are some of the most competitive in the country, with unlimited plans available from $35 to $60 a month. The basic $35 plan lacks data and a couple of voice features; the $45 plan includes unlimited voice, text, data, and online backup; and the $55 and $60 unlimited plans are for Android and BlackBerry devices, respectively. According to Cricket, all regulatory taxes and fees are included in that price. … Read more