Summer’s Coolest New Gadgets

June 24, 2010, By Steve McFarlane 2 comments

There are quite a few cool new tech products on the market this summer. Among them are two great products from Apple in the form of the iPhone 4 and the iPad. However, other manufacturers are stepping up to the plate with their offerings of hot new summer gadgets as well.

Apple iPad

The iPad is around the size of a magazine and weighs about 1.5 pounds. Whether you call it a tablet PC, a new generation of laptops or an oversized iPhone, there is no denying the Apple iPad’s ease of use and overall performance will put even high-end portable laptops to shame.

The 9.7-inch screen makes the iPad great for reading eBooks, surfing the web and checking email. All of the iPhone’s apps should work with the iPad without a problem, making it easy to add new features to the device. This product comes in three models: a Wi-Fi only 16GB model that costs $499 and two Wi-Fi 3G combo models that come with 32GB and 64GB of storage, respectively.

Even though the only input device is the touch sensitive screen, users can purchase a dock and keyboard combination. However, the interface and navigation is so good that most users will want to use the iPad without the dock. In any case, the device does make for a pretty good picture frame when mounted in the dock.

Apple iPhone 4

Ever since an Apple employee lost a pre-production version of the new iPhone, the market has been alive with speculation on what the new phone will offer. By all accounts, Apple has produced a well thought-out, feature-rich device in the form of the iPhone 4.

As widely expected, Apple transplanted the A4 processor from the iPad into the iPhone 4, which gives the new phone more processing power, translating into a better user experience. Along with better power management, the new iPhone now has a larger battery, which means that users will have up to 7 hours of talk time and up to 6 hours of 3G browsing.

The new iPhone has over 100 new features. Besides those mentioned above, the iPhone 4 now has a front facing camera that allows users to make video calls (only on WiFi for now), a gyroscope to allow the phone to better respond to movement, and a better screen that displays sharper images by packing four times the amount of pixels into the same area compared to previous iPhones. The iPhone will debut in late June with pricing starting at $199 with a 2-year AT&T phone plan.

The HTC EVO 4G

The EVO is a phone of manly proportions. It measures 4.8 inches tall by 2.6 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick and weighs 6 ounces. The EVO 4G justifies its hefty proportions by delivering a stunning 4.3-inch display, one of the largest available on smartphones today. It runs on the Android operating system.

The HTC EVO 4G is the first 4G WiMax phone to be officially released in the States. The phone works on Sprint’s CDMA 800/1900 MHZ 4G network. However, the phone will revert to EV-DO Rev if 4G service is not available. Most users will not be able to get 4G service though, as it is only being offered in 32 cities as of this writing.

4G technology offers significant speed increases over 3G. Sprint claims that its 4G WiMax network is ten times faster than today’s 3G technology. While real world speeds will vary, the EVO should be able to manage downloads speeds up to 10Mbps and support 1Mbps uploads.

Lots of New Summer Gear Choices

From the iPhone 4 and iPad to the HTC EVO 4G, there are some really great gadgets to choose from this year. Other gear you may want to consider include the Dell Streak (a 5-inch Android tablet for on-the-go entertainment) and the Alienware M11x gaming laptop.