Wave

BARCELONA, Spain--The ink is barely dry on the Samsung Wave announcement, but T-Mobile already is stepping in to distribute the device in several European markets. In addition to the Wave at Mobile World Congress the carrier also introduced the T-Mobile Pulse Mini.

Remember that the Wave is the first handset to feature Sammy's new Bada OS. CNET's Bonnie Cha handled the phone shortly after the announcement two days ago. Though she liked the brilliant display and features of the Windows Mobile handset, she's not so sure about Bada. Yet, customers across Europe will have the opportunity to … Read more

Microsoft made headlines on the first day of Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona with the announcement of Windows Phone 7, its brand new mobile operating system. It will feature integration with Xbox Live and Zune, with a user interface unlike anything we've seen before. The Windows Mobile name is effectively dead.

But that's not all that debuted in Barcelona. Samsung took the opportunity to reveal its new Bada operating system with the Samsung Wave.

The Wave is slim, with a 3.3-inch AMOLED display, and features powerful features like Wi-Fi, a 1GHz processor, GPS, a 5-megapixel camera, … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--On Sunday, the Samsung Wave made its splashy debut during a rather lavish press conference hosted by Samsung on the eve of Mobile World Congress 2010 here in Barcelona.

Complete with dancers and aerial ballet (not to mention drowning us in every wave metaphor one could ever think of), the event gave us a chance to check out the Samsung's first Bada phone. Bada, which means ocean in Korean and is meant to represent the "limitless variety" of the platform, is the company's own mobile operating system that is designed to bring the smartphone experience … Read more

From the signs looming over Mobile World Congress we knew that Samsung was going to "unpack" a new phone in Barcelona. And the night before the show began the company did just that with the Samsung Wave, the first handset to run on Sammy's new Bada operating system.

Also called the S8500, the Wave's slim (4.64 inches long by 2.2 inches wide by 0.42 inch deep) candy bar design resembles previous Samsung touch-screen handsets like the Omnia II. The 3.3-inch AMOLED (800x480 pixels) display supports TouchWiz 3.0, which features quick access to apps, integration with social-networking services, and user customization of the home screen. You'll also find Social Hub, which promises combined delivery of e-mail, text messages, and calendar events.

The bigger story, however, is inside. As mentioned, the Wave is the debut device for Bada. Though Samsung rolled out the new OS in November, this is our first chance to check it out and see what it offers. We know that the open OS will have access to Samsung's new application store, but we can't say yet how Bada will compare with Google Android and what it will do for Samsung. Once we get the chance to play with the Wave and Bada, we'll tell you more.… Read more

Natali joins the dark side and immediately offends Justin and Wilson; Google introduces a new social network and gets pissed at Chinese copycat site Gojje; and GoldenEye makes its triumphant comeback--all this on today's episode of CNET's The 404 Podcast, now featuring co-host Natali Del Conte!

Today marks a special milestone on the show as we welcome the newest co-host of the show, Ms. Natali Del Conte! She'll join in the fun every Thursday (with the exception of today), offering a fresh perspective on our usual collection of stories. Right off the bat, Natali sparks a little controversy and reveals her one true weakness, so tune in to hear it all unfold!

The 404 is also the perfect outlet for Natali to speak freely on topics like Google's newest social-publishing tool, Google Buzz. Announced yesterday, the service lets you explore status updates and automatically adds your contacts via Gmail, which we're still trying to figure out. Interestingly enough, messages can be made public or private, but Natali is justifiably hesitant to give out her e-mail address to everyone in her network. The service also has a recommendation engine that allows Google to "learn" your tastes and recommend incoming items--sounds suspiciously intrusive, we'll keep you updated on this story as we play around with it.

Speaking of Google, the site is adding another log to its flame war with China over a copycat site subtlety dubbed "Goojje." We're not sure what's up with the cease-and-desist letter since its logo looks nothing like Google's, but Goojje already pulled down the original site, so no harm no foul, right guys?

Finally, big thanks to everyone who's sent in a sticker picture submissions, we're trying our best to stuff and send all the SASEs back in a timely fashion, so please be patient! If you already got your sticker pictures, it's your turn to do work for us! Take a picture of where you stuck it, hopefully in a public setting, and send it to the404(at)cnet[dot]com. We'll show it on a future episode of The 404!

Amidst the slew of digital audio editing programs available for download, GoldWave manages to stand out thanks to its robust feature set, stable performance, and user-friendly interface. Despite the fact that the main window looks like a throwback to early software days, it packs in just about every function you could want. Two tool bars line the top of the window: one for the main features of the program (such as copy, zoom, and trim), and another for the various effects that you can add to the audio, such as reverb, pitch, and echo. Hovering the mouse over any button … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Despite my jaded, bitter facade, there are times when I am easily impressed. Now is one of those times. A new, graffiti-inspired line from iWave is turning my head, and all the company did was splash a flashy exterior on to some otherwise pretty standard products.

The products in the Urban Collection include iPod/iPhone cases, earbuds, headphones, and speakers, which range in price from $9.99 to $39.99. Such budget pricing doesn't bode well for sound quality, but they sure do look purty! I'm especially fond of the speakers pictured above. Look for them on … Read more

Since explosive materials were sneaked onto a U.S. domestic flight on Christmas Day, full-body scanning machines are far more likely to make their way to security lines at your local airport, even though they might not have detected said materials.

While the Transportation Security Administration already has 40 such devices in place, it just bought 150 to be placed in U.S. airports and says it plans to buy 300 more (they go for $170,000 apiece). On Wednesday, the Netherlands announced that these scanners would be used on passengers for all flights out of Amsterdam to the U.… Read more

Google, probably the most prominent advocate of moving traditional productivity software such as word processors online, acquired a small company called AppJet whose EtherPad service fits into that agenda.

AppJet announced the Google acquisition Friday. "The EtherPad team will continue its work on real-time collaboration by joining the Google Wave team," the site said.

AppJet offered free and premium versions of its service, which could import Microsoft Word documents, Web pages, PDFs, and plain text files, and let groups of people edit them collectively on what it called pad. A "time-slider" feature let people look back … Read more