The company, which previously offered a WiFi portal called CommodoreWorld for purchasers of its devices, has now partnered with
Fon, a worldwide provider of wireless hot spots. Fon previously offered WiFi access free only to "Foneros" -- those willing to share some of their own bandwidth via a special encrypted link -- but this is now extended to any purchaser of the Gravel in Pocket.
Commodore's Gravel in Pocket has built-in WiFiThe Gravel in Pocket has a 2.8-inch QVGA (320 x 240 pixel) display and is said to play video in MPEG2, MPEG4, DivX, Xvid, and WMV at up to 24 frames per second. It is also compatible with several subtitle formats, including .SRT and .SUB.
Music support extends to the usual MP3, WAV, and WMA formats. Internal flash storage is relatively meager, with standard capacities of 1 or 2 GB, but as much as 2 GB additional storage can be added via the Gravel in Pocket's SD/MMC slot. Commodore also points out that video files need not be stored on the device, since they can be streamed via CommodoreWorld.
According to Commodore, the Gravel in Pocket includes a built-in speaker and a rechargeable 1100 mAh lithium-ion battery. Battery life is said to be 11 hours when playing music, or 4 hours when playing video.
The dark gray device measures 3.3 x 2.9 x 0.6 inches (84 x 73 x 17 mm) and includes a mini-USB 2.0 port. Firmware is updated automatically via CommodoreWorld, the company says.
The Gravel in Pocket is available now in Europe, though pricing was not released.
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