KIN 2 is the not-square one (click to high-definitionize)

So, I’ve been using the KIN 2 as my only mobile device (no iPod Touch or regular cell) for the last two weeks. Check out my impression of how it held up to the theory of being a phone for teenagers in my guest column over at Slashgear.

KIN – Teenagers dream phone?

I’ve had some time to be able to check out Microsoft’s latest phone offering designed for teens and the way we use phones – for a different take then most tech blogs, be sure to check out my guest column over at Slashgear for my take.

So, later this week, I’ll be flying out to California to join several other teen technology bloggers at Intel’s Youth Rock Stars Summit, at Intel Headquarters. We’ll be seeing (and showing you guys) some of the newest Intel tech, especially related to mobile devices for students. Coverage of the event will be both here, as well as on our Twitter feed.

Joining me will be:

Teresa Wu of College Candy and By Teresa Wu

Chris Lesinski of Hack College

Kelly Sutton of Hack College

Corvida Raven of SheGeeks

Daniel Brusilovsky of Teens in Tech (tentative)

Serena Wu of Social Geekette (tentative)

Julia Rubin of Under the Button

Arielle Patrice Scott

Disclosure: As per FTC Guidelines and the WOMMA Code of Ethics, I’m disclosing that my travel and accommodation expenses are being covered, and that I will be receiving a Dell Mini netbook as part of my attendance.

About the Intel Youth Rock Stars Summit:

Intel’s Youth Rock Stars Summit brings together bloggers that reach youth audiences in an all-day, immersive event at the Intel headquarters. On this day, attendees will get to preview some of the latest developments in Intel technology, including the all-new Intel Core 2010 processor family, mobile devices for students on-the-go, gaming and more. Attendees will even get to meet Intel “Rock Star” Mario Paniccia!

Happy New Year! Yes, we are finally into the first decade of the 2000′s. Along with the new year comes the upcoming annual Consumer Electronics Show, which showcases a lot  of the new tech you’ll see next year.

Among categories in which we expect particular development, smarter, even more powerful smartphones, faster, better computers (particularly netbooks), 3D TV’s (just a lot of 3D in general), eBooks, tablets (especially Apple, if you’ve been following any news), and 4G.

4G, which is the next step in cell phone networking, with even faster, higher-quality connection, is anticipated to be launched by Sprint in the US very shortly–with the inclusion of more modems and a some new 4G-capable phones–and Verizon is said to begin the rollout of their 4G network this year as well.

So stay tuned, CES kicks off January 6th and runs through the 10th, and we’ll be relaying to you everything about the latest, coolest tech out there.

(Oh, and for all those wondering about Macworld– Apple isn’t participating in it this year, but don’t worry, word is that they got a January announcement of their own planned for later this month…)

Just a reminder for anyone interested in writing for us that the deadline for applications is only a couple of days away- June 14th! We know its finals season so we’re giving a couple days extension, till the end of the next weekend, to submit your application. Interested? Click here to take your first step to joining TeenTechBlog.

Thanks and we hope to be hearing from you soon.

-Your friends at TeenTechBlog

A big hello out there to all you readers. Just a few quick updates on some new things we got coming:

1. TeenTechBlog goes social networking – We’re now on Facebook and Twitter! Fan us/ Follow us there to get the latest TTB updates.

2. Love technology and think you got what it takes to be a writer for TeenTechBlog? For those of you out there who want to come join our team, we are looking for another writer to make our blog even more dynamic than ever. If you’re  interested, just send us an email to eli.chaim@teentechblog.com with:

• Some background info about yourself

• Best way to get in contact with you

• What are your favorite things- what do you like about technology– what interests you in technology (video games, cell phones, computers…), and what are your interests outside of technology (sports, music….).

• What do you think you could contribute to TeenTechBlog, and how often you will be able to write (daily, every other day, weekly, etc.).

• A sample post on a topic of technology you like- you can base it on the design and style of some of our previous posts.

Please NO 50 page essays. Just some quick answers to the questions and a short sample post. Please try to get these in soon; the entry deadline is June 10th.

Thanks a hope you enjoy some of the new things we’re putting in, and to all prospective writers– we look forward to hearing from you soon!

Have a great summer!

–Your friends at TeenTechBlog

CES and MacWorld- coming this week!

Yup, it’s that time of year again. The new year and playoff football have begun, and CES and MacWorld — arguably two of the year’s biggest tech shows, in which many of the upcoming years gadgets are announced — kicks off this week.

A lot of good stuff appears on the horizon. Windows 7 looks AMAZING — pretty much all the good Vista was supposed to be — and should receive a lot of attention from Microsoft. All new Palm cell phones should be armed with, by Palm’s hardware standards, a great texting keyboard as well as a new “Nova OS” that should bring the Palm Software up to 2009 and not 2002. We also should be seeing all new cell phones and computers (specifically netbooks), and as far as Apple, you never know with them though we anticipate some nice goodies from their final MacWorld.

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to write about all the details right away; CES and the MacWorld both take place during our  finals/midterms week. On the upside though (at least for us ), with finals means that our winter vacation is almost here!

And don’t worry, we will still give you round ups on a lot of the major things coming from these events (yes, there are some things that we find aren’t worth covering — CES is a BIG event with A LOT of stuff!) after the events are over, but don’t worry- we will have some posts daily on some of the  really BIG things arriving out of the shows (such as the MacWorld and Palm conferences). We’ll keep the posting style for the round ups looking similar to last year (organized by best of each catergory) and we hope to have everything covered from both CES and MacWorld up by the end of next week– so keep checking back!

Happy New Year!!!

Yup, 2008 is in the books- and 2009 is already starting to come upon us. So, what better way to finally finish off 2008 then with our picks for the top gadgets of the year! We got our picks from best cell phone to best laptop to best overall gadget- so read on!

Best Gadget:

iPhone 3G- Hands down the most amazing combination between phone, music player, internet device, and video game player– and its fun!

Best Cell Phone:

iPhone 3G- (see above comment)

Best Mp3 Player:

iPod Touch 2G- Not even a question, 2G touch. Even though its a more minor update, the Touch is still the best Mp3 around, and only got better with the App Store and built-in speaker.

Best Computer:

Apple MacBook/MacBook Pro- It’s stronger, faster, and lighter (not to mention much cooler )- bringing some much needed updates to an already very good MacBook line.

Best Video Game:

Here we’ll break it down to individual picks, as we all had different picks.

Nik- RockBand 2

Eli- Call of Duty World at War

Chaim- Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Zev- Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots

Now we’ll give you our choice for the worst gadget of the year.

Worst Gadget of the Year:

PlayStation 3- Even though the PS3 has been out since 2006, in 2008 the PS3 only led the Xbox 360 in sales MAYBE for 2 months tops (we don’t want to even talk about how far it was behind the Wii ). It probably wouldn’t have even had that if the PS3 didn’t have Metal Gear. Heck, the PSP was even selling better than the PS3! In short, the PS3 didn’t do anything unique (not a lot of must have games or a price cut like the 360) to make it a console worth having, leaving us no choice but to name it the worst gadget of the year.

So there you have it, our best (and worst) gadgets from 2008. What’s your list look like? You agree or disagree with our list? Add your own voice in the comments!

Oh, and before we end this post- Happy New Year to all and see you in 2009!

As we mentioned in our Happy Birthday post, we feel that another way we can accomplish that goal is to ask you, our readers, what questions or problems your having with technology. Having trouble backing up an iPod, not sure what type of cell phone to get? Ask us!  We hope to then research the ones that are most interesting or requested and make those questions the focus of future posts in the coming week.

You can either drop your question as a comment below, or if you prefer, email us at contact@teentechblog.com . Unfortunately, seeing as we our students ourselves and have things outside the blog, we may not be able to answer each and every question you may have so we highly recommend posting your questions as a comment; who knows, another reader might have your answer!

So start sending in those questions, and we look forward to helping you.

–Your Friends at TeenTechBlog

As we turn the corner on our first year, we wish to reiterate that our mission is to help you with tech and it is our constant goal to do our jobs even better (though they’re not really jobs per say- we don’t make money off it ).

We really do value your opinions, and we really want you to share them with us. Want more news on a certain topic (like cell phones, video games, iPods)? Have a better way for us to write some of our posts?

Really, anything- don’t be quiet like in class; sound off in the comments or shoot us an email at tips@teentechblog.com

We look forward to hearing from you.

-Your Friends at TeenTechBlog.