Armed with a pocket full of business cards and comfy teal-sequined kicks, I donned my press badge and had field day at the 2011 CEA Line Show in NYC last month. It was a science and tech playground for the blogger in me! I got to touch all sorts of new tech toys that hadn’t even hit the market, share perspectives with industry leaders and learn about new techniques and concepts in everything from wireless technologies, security and cyber-safety to social networking for pre-teens.

I talked with companies big and small, some names you know and some that you are only now just hearing of and I captured a few great convo’s to share with you, some of which I have posted about and some which you will hear more about once products and interviews become available. It was a sweet day to be a blogger…

Oh course, I told you all about Intel’s Education Service Corps and shared this video: Intel’s Wayne Grant Tells Us about Intel Service Corps & the Classmate PC

But I haven’t yet had the chance to tell you about these…

Music Lites Talks to Cutegeek at the 2011 CEA Line Show

Azuna Talks to CuteGeek about its Print Technology at the 2011 CEA Line Show

Cell Handle Talks to CuteGeek at the 2011 CEA Line Show

Celestron Talks to CuteGeek about a few of its hottest new products:

• The Retrace Personal GPS
• The Sky Prodigy Telescope
• The USB Microscope

And Cutegeek wil be checking out Celestron’s SkyQ app for the iPhone this week so watch for that.

I shared my thoughts on the Motorola Droid X2 and unboxed the Motorola Roadster with you, sharing the following videos:

• Motorola Gives CuteGeek a Droid X2 Demo at the 2011 CEA Line Show
• Motorola Rewards Safe Drivers…Get On-Board!
• Wendy Unboxing Motorola Roadster.mov

Of course, Radiris and I told you all about our Ladies Night with HTC at Blow NYC and some of the great products we got to preview including the new HTC phones, some with 3D functionality and the very sleek HTC Flyer. If you missed it, check out: HTC Hot Products Chat, Ladies Night @ Blow NYC. All dolled up from our glamour treatments at Blow, Radiris and I hit Pioneers Party where I played at being a DJ, wrapping the night with good food, good music, great company with amazing hair…

Everyday can’t be a like this but it is sweet to land one once in awhile! Best of all, I gathered tons of ideas and suggestions for back-to-school, holiday gifts and a few other lists I am pulling together for CuteGeek so watch for them…and as the Fedex and UPS burn tracks to my door with deliveries from our latest CEA friends, some interesting product reviews will becoming your way…

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Ken Murphy from Motorola talks us through the tech and features of the Motorola Droid X2 with Verizon Wireless. Watch what you can do with an HDMI cable and the Droid X2! You can connect the Droid to your TV and it becomes your mobile and agile multi-media host as well as your personal information device. Look at maps, play games, update a document with Quick Office, or watch a video on the TV with no resolution loss.

I like the look and feel of this phone in my hand. I can’t say it plainer than that. The weight is comfortable the size is not too big to grip and the screen is just right for what I want to do with my phone. Droid is fast to respond to my multimedia demands with his dual core processor and has the battery stamina to keep up with my constant use without forcing me to Starbucks for a Plug-in-and-charge. His robotic/androidesque voice when I power him is charming to me and I like his unique features the living wall-paper and the social media carousel. I can access just about anything with a thumb-swipe and a tap so I can intuitively reach for what I am looking for as I walk, talk and multi-task without having to stop, stand-still and grip the phone with one hand and finger-peck with the other to find what I need.  The Droid X2 and I get along just fine and I am not sneak-finger-swiping on other smart devices to compensate for anything. He meets my personal device needs.

Back to that multi-media host concept….I am big on sharing videos and photos with family and friends and I love to share a quick powerpoint with colleagues being able to shimmy up to any flatscreen, or anything that takes a mini HDMI connection really, is a big bonus for me. If you want to look under the hood, watch Ken’s video blurb or check out the specs at motorola.com.

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Motorola’s Sanjay Jha and Sprint’s Dan Hesse got together with NYC techies to unveil the Photon 4G, one of several Motorola Android phones coming to Sprint. The Photon 4G is as fast as ‘smart’ gets at the moment with a dual core processor and 4G speeds, 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB for storage. The Photon is sleekly designed with rounded corners, a textured back for comfortable hand grip,  a phenomenal display resolution and a kickstand around back so it stands on it’s own. It has everything you’d expect: Gingerbread, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 8 megapixel HD video front-facing camera and a few things that you wouldn’t expect but will be thrilled with like International GSM capabilities and 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot capability for up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices. The talk was heavy on specs but sparse on availability and pricing so the best I can tell you is to watch for it this summer…and it is worth watching for….

While you wait, check out this video of the Photon in action…

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I am very afraid of driving and talking on my phone. But I will be the first to concede that there are times where you just have to— like when you’re driving on a work errand that’s urgent and your boss calls you while you’re on your way…its practically a guarantee that that’s urgent too. So how to bridge the divide between my fraidy cat tendencies and needing to answer, a place which has me hurriedly accepting the call and then punching the screen near where it says “Speaker” before dropping the phone into my lap while I struggle to hear what’s being said? Why, a Bluetooth handsfree, of course!

I previously reviewed a Motorola handsfree device, the h17txt, for which its claim to fame was being able to read aloud incoming texts (with Android devices only, sigh…) This time I received the Motorola Oasis, which is a more high end handsfree device, both in design, and (just a bit) in price. This unit is Motorola’s lightest behind-the-ear design, and has dual mics with an extended boom for better noise cancellation. My first thought of seeing the device is that it resembles a very elegant hearing aid. I did not think it would be too comfortable based on the look, but once I got it in my ear, I was very much proven wrong. While it comes with several sizes of rubber ear molds, the medium size which came attached to it fit my right ear perfectly, and the headset sit on my ear in a totally comfortable way. I can see how people would forget this thing was attached to their head and just walk around all day with it.

Actually maneuvering it onto my ear wasn’t the easiest though, as I have an inner-ear cartilage piercing, which requires me to move the ring up every time I try to stuff something like an earbud into my ear. Doing that with two fingers while I fit my bud into my ear while trying to fold my outer ear into the device simultaneously is not the easiest motion, and definitely not a fluid movement sans fiddling, at least for me. Generally I wouldn’t deduct too many points for this since I believe in putting on the device as soon as you sit in the car anyway (because just in case!)

The back of the handsfree has 3 buttons and an on-off switch, which isn’t so easy to operate without any semblance of fingernails (I am a horrifying nail biter). The buttons are easy to feel out because they have raised nubs, 3 dots for volume up and 1 dot for volume down, etc. The  boom has it’s own button, the main “Go” button, where you can take calls, reject calls, give voice commands, and other things. A test phone call went well, with both the caller being heard loud and clear and my sound travelling the same way right back to him. I love that I can activate voice control by holding down the call button, tell it to “Call Leo” and have the Motorola Oasis’ advanced voice controls tell me that Leo has 5 different numbers listed in my phone book, and please choose which one to call! (The controls operator voice goes on to report the different number classifications I set for Leo, including his “GVoice, Work, Mobile, Main, and Other” numbers). Now I can call him from the car when I’m approaching his office, so he can come down and I don’t have to sit in the car for a long time, waiting for him to come out so we can grab dinner!

The out of box experience was pretty impressive too. The elegant device comes in an equally elegant black box with silver logo on it, which, when opened, displays the device sitting on its own little black satin pillow and TALKS to you! That’s right, the marketing folks at Motorola had a message recorded by a dude who has an English accent and is the Design Manager for headsets at Motorola, introducing your new purchase to you personally! What a cute touch, unseen in the real world except for those amusing singing greeting cards.

At $80, the Motorola Oasis is a very attractive, well built Bluetooth headset. If you’re on the market for one, and you’re looking for a comfortable, beautiful unit that also sounds good, this is a great option for you. However, if  you need other features like your texts read aloud, for those text-aholics, there are other handsfree devices on the market for you.

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In Episode 7 of the Girls out Loud Show, Maya and Cristina go from old technology to new, from late use of the Polaroid camera, to the greatest books of all time, to the mass consumption of email via Blackberry and to the new age of shopping with Shopkick. Come ride the tech heavy journey from the past to the future!

Did Shopkick Just Change The Check-In Game? You Be The Judge

BlackBerry Torch announced

Motorola-Verizon tablet will have FiOS TV, ten-inch screen?

What Is Microsoft’s Mysterious Black Nub?

Thirty Books Everyone Should Read Before They’re Thirty

He Took a Polaroid Every Day, Until the Day He Died

To download, simply right-click and “Save As” onto your computer somewhere.

Girls Out Loud Episode 7

Enjoy the show? Hate it? Either way, give us a shout at maya[at]girlsoutloudshow.com or cristina[at]girlsoutloudshow.com.

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The Motorola DROID is a beautiful piece of hardware that generated a ton of buzz this past fall, mostly because of the much hyped and slightly controversial ad campaign that Verizon ran for the device, that whole “Droid DOES” business. Remember that?

Well, the Droid does, as far as I’m concerned. It does most if not all of the things the iPhone does, the screen resolution is mind blowingly awesome, and while perhaps a bit heavy and still a little on the complicated side (for me, an iPhone heavy user, trying to do many things on the Android OS is difficult and slow. It would take a little bit of time for me to truly become fluent, I believe. But that’s just me.)

This is not a review of the DROID, however, nor Android itself, believe it or not! Last week I got my hands on a review unit of the Droid Multimedia “Station”. What the little station is, is a small dock which holds the phone in a horizontal position and switches its mode to “Multimedia.” The display changes to a nifty alarm clock look, and there’s a couple of widgets like weather, music, and alarm that get forefront screen real estate. The dock functions as a holder, and a charger for the unit, which needs to be plugged in via USB to an outlet to charge. It does not come with speakers, so you would still need to plug the device into some external speakers to achieve that bass blasting party we all know and love.

It works by magnets– there are magnets inlaid in the DROID hardware, and magnets inside the multimedia station and (separate) car dock. When the DROID is placed in the stand, the placement of the magnets alerts the device to run the “Multimedia” app. The same thing happens when its clipped into its car dock– the placement of the magnets in the car dock alerts the phone that it needs to run the car version of the app. SO– some awesome dudes at Engadget rigged up their own super cool designed (right, watch the video) “docks” for the DROID using some cardboard, and 4 little magnets. And then, it worked.

Paul Miller from Engadget hacks the Multimedia function

Couple THAT knowledge with the fact that there’s actually a free app in the Android App Market called DockRunner that runs the Multimedia app on command– and then ask yourself if a $30 piece of plastic which serves then only to HOLD your phone in place, really, is worth it. I mean, sure, it charges it if the stand is plugged into your wall, but then really you’re only paying for another charger. Considering that for the DROID, an extra charger costs between $2 and $8, depending on where you look, the jury’s out. I’m a frugal gal myself, so I would say neigh. Call me crazy.

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1. Motorola DEVOUR- Verizon’s first phone with MOTOBLUR
2. Review: The Motorola Endeavor HX1

Calling all social media junkies looking for a easier way to stay connected and a new phone!   Today Motorola and Verizon introduced the Motorola DEVOUR,  Verizon’s  first phone with MOTOBLUR to be release in March 2010. MOTOBLUR is Motorola’s Android-powered content delivery service that is designed to make phones more social media smart and personal with a customizable home screen.  See Press Release here and below are the product specs.  Needless to say after previously reviewing one of Moto’s phones, the Rival,  I am interested and hope Motorola sends me the Devour to review.  

Key features:

• Touch-sensitive navigation pad
• 3.1” capacitive touch screen
• Pre-loaded applications such as Gmail, Google Talk™, YouTube™, Google Search™ and Google Maps™ with Google Maps Navigation.
• Android Market™ gives users access to more than 20,000 applications.
• Happenings Widget – MOTOBLUR automatically pushes status updates, wall posts and photo updates from popular social networking sites to the Happenings Widget on the home screen. Customers can flick through the latest updates and fire back responses using the slide-out full QWERTY keyboard.
• Universal Inbox – MOTOBLUR gathers texts, social network messages and e-mails into one home screen widget for quick response.
• Back-Up and Security – Contacts, log-in information, home screen customizations, e-mail and social network messages are backed up automatically on the secure MOTOBLUR portal. The portal also allows customers to use the phone’s fully integrated aGPS to help locate the phone if misplaced. Remote wipe easily clears information from a lost device.
• 8 GB microSD™ card pre-installed
• Bluetooth® profiles supported: A2DP, HID, HSP, HFP, AVRCP and GAP

Cross your fingers I get to test this product and let you cutegeek fans know more about this product!

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