PhoneTalk

Every year droves of people head to Times Square, regardless of weather conditions, to watch the ball drop. This year, Verizon Wireless is providing a way for anyone with a U.S. cell phone to send New Year's greetings and pictures to appear on the Spotlight Live Jumbotron overlooking Times Square from 1:00 p.m. ET on Monday, Dec. 31, 2007 through 4:00 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2008.

Want to see your greeting in lights? Simply send a message from any text-capable phone, from any wireless carrier to 81878 or a picture message to NYC@pix.vzw.com and look for it to appear on the 75-foot Jumbotron in Times Square.

Note: Your regular messaging fees still apply.

Topics:

Phone Smarts

Verizon Wireless

Text messaging

This New York Times article discusses two things we've been covering recently here at PhoneTalk: Texting teen drivers and voice services for your cell phone. Besides pointing out interesting voice services for reading and sending text messages it also has some interesting stats about teen drivers and their texting habits:

A survey this year by AAA and Seventeen magazine found that 46 percent of drivers 16 and 17 years old said that they text-message while driving. It’s an alarming statistic given that 37 percent of teenage drivers said they believed that text messaging was the most serious driver distraction, according to a survey this year by the Liberty Mutual Insurance Group and Students Against Destructive Decisions. - NY Times

Those are some pretty interesting stats about new drivers. While it's great that there are voice services available for texting, I wonder if teens will actually use them. They are part of a generation that lean toward texting before calling. Good news is that there are many states that have been adding/amending driving and talking on a cell phone laws to include a ban on texting while driving as well. One of the first states to pass such a law was Washington and many others are following suit. More and more laws are going into effect monthly. For example, Nebraska, Oregon and Washington will all have new cell phone driving laws in January. You can find out more about cell phone driving laws in your state by checking out our Cell Phone Driving Laws by State article.

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

Text messaging

Driving laws

E-mail

Many cell phones have the capability to send Instant Messages (IMs), which is pretty cool. You can be logged on to your IM account and send messages back and forth in a very similar manner to texting. When I'm asked how to describe the phenomenon of IMing, I often say, "It's like texting, but on your computer." There's a new device from Zipit Wireless called Z2 (sounds a little like a sports car model, but if it makes IMing fast and easy, that's OK by me) that's dedicated to sending IMs (the Z2 supports AOL, Yahoo, and MSN accounts) using a WiFi network. It's a cool idea, especially if you're in an environment with a WiFi network - whether at home or even at your local Starbucks. In addition, to sending messages the Z2 will save all your past IM conversations, play music stored on a MiniSD card or streamed over the Internet when connected via WiFi, and even has a spot to store and view pics.

At $149, it's not exactly the kind of thing you'd want to get for someone who has a tendency to lose things, but it is a good idea if you have someone in your life who needs to IM on the go and since IM applications are on cell phones you can send/receive an IM to the Z2 from your cell phone as well.

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

Music

WiFi

Accessories

What is it? YouGetItBack security sticker, which gives you the peace of mind of knowing that 75% of the time if you leave your cell phone behind or lose it that it’ll make it’s way back to you.

How much? Free with the purchase of a new smartphone or with the purchase of select multimedia handsets.

Why is it such a good deal? You’re getting this cool new phone, but if you misplace it while hitting the slopes this winter or getting away to the sun; we want to do our best to get it back to you. You’ll get the security tag (a $10 value) for free with your purchase. We’re sure once the tag comes in handy, you’ll be back to get tags for everything from your iPod to your TomTom.

Topics:

In The Know

Smart phones

Accessories

Security

We asked Bloggers around the Internet for their opinion on voice recognition software and it's use on cell phones. Our final post comes from Eric Priezkalns. To read more from Eric, check out Revenue Protect:

Speech is the most popular interface known to man. Long before the written word, man has used talk to influence and alter the world around him. Young children rapidly learn it, entertainers do it to amuse, diplomats prefer it to war. People talk to other people, to animals, to plants, to themselves and to God. The main reason humans invented written symbols and language is to have permanent records. Fragments of ancient texts that have survived to the present day state laws and business accounts as often as not. Like the QWERTY keyboard, sometimes objects can become so familiar that we forget they were originally designed to work around technical and physical limitations. If we could talk to machines, then we would. In fact, we often do talk to machines – we just do not expect them to respond. Even the most forward-thinking can forget this; Steve Jobs announced that “voice is the killer app” before showing off his new phone with a touchscreen. He was half-right. Voice is the killer app, but not just because people want to talk to each other. Phones are designed to be talked through. It would be just as natural to design phones to be talked to.

(Read more)

Topics:

Observed

We asked Bloggers around the Internet for their opinion on voice recognition software and it's use on cell phones. Our next post comes from Jeff Foley. To read more from Jeff, check out his blog:

Speech recognition is quickly moving from a nice-to-have to a must-have feature on mobile phones. Part of this, of course, has been the improvements in accuracy, as speech R&D advances take advantage of more powerful resources on mobile phones. But the real reasons for the rise of speech tie directly into three issues: speed, convenience, and perhaps most importantly, safety.

Speed. Put simply, speech makes it faster to use your phone. And with the advent of mobile dictation capabilities, people can dictate text messages much faster than using a T9 keypad, iPhone touchscreen, or mini-keyboard. Some people mistakenly scoff at the value of speech applications for mobile phones. "Why would I speak a text message -- why wouldn't I just call the person?" (Why send text messages in the first place? Sometimes you don't want to interrupt the person with a call.) "What about privacy -- I don't want to say what I'm typing out loud!" (As opposed to cell phone conversations? Besides, you can always go back to thumbing it.) The bottom line is that all the rich content and communication capabilities being added to today's phones can be accessed more quickly with a speech interface. Which ties into the next point...

Convenience. Mobile phones come standard with a slew of "bullet point" features, many of which will never be used by most users. Why do I need a notepad if this thing doesn't have a keyboard? And no, I don't want to download videos or buy casino games with bad graphics... this is a work phone! But hand in hand with the concept of speed is the ability to unlock the power of mobile phones, and give easier access to otherwise buried features. Case in point -- ever try to find and download a (Read more)

Topics:

Observed

What is it? The first generation Curve, the BlackBerry 8300.

How much? Free out the door (no rebates!) + $50 rebate from AT&T.

Why is it such a good deal? What’s the why? It’s since been passed by the 8310, which tosses in two new colors (Red and Titanium) and also lacks GPS. To be sure, GPS on a cell phone is a pretty sweet add-on . . . especially when it's cold, raining and you weren't really paying attention to your father-in-law's directions. If blue is cool with you, and you’re not keen on GPS on a cell phone then this is a steal! We need to move these out, so have at them: once they’re gone, they’re gone. The offer is only good on an individual line or the first line of a family plan.

Topics:	In The Know	AT&T Wireless	BlackBerry	Smart phones
	GPS

We asked Bloggers around the Internet for their opinion on voice recognition software and it's use on cell phones. Our next post comes from David Cassel. To read more from David, check out his blog at Tech.Blorge:

Speech interfaces aren't popular for several good reasons.

• It takes longer. I can instantly recognize an appropriate icon and tap it within a second. But the same operation takes noticeably longer if a slowly-enunciating voice has to describe my options. (Especially if it then has to describe a second set of choices following from the first selection!)


• Ineffectiveness. Speech interfaces only work if every possible request can be anticipated. Some services do have a very specific set of choices. (For example, Moviefone.) But others simply can't provide a voice prompt for every possible path that a user might take, and this problem is compounded by different words users offer for the same requests. I remember a frustrating call where I ended up shouting to the voice prompts "Operator! Representative? Live Person. Help!!!"


• Bad design. When I call my mutual fund to check my balance, their speech interface prompts asks me which fund to check. Since I only own one fund, it's a stupid question — annoying, and time-consuming. If I were speaking to a live operator, they could a.) see that I had only one fund, and b.) instantly provide the balance. Speech interfaces leave the user at the mercy of a pre-configured set of choices, and this is ultimately a dis-empowering experience.

Obviously speech recognition is already becoming a mainstream interface — but not because users like it. Banks implement it to save money by reducing the number of live operators. (And to torture their users with mandatory advertisements for their other products.) Since 1997 my dentist has also been using a headset recorder with a voice interface to record measurements of my teeth (while keeping both his hands in my mouth...)

This points to a key opportunity for speech interface systems — situations where a touch interface isn't practical. One great example? When users are driving. On-board navigation systems can let users request real-time traffic information or driving directions while they're keeping their hands on the steering wheel. Speech interfaces could provide a variety of other services for drivers, from ordering meals, buying tickets, or even pre-ordering flowers for a big date. Ultimately users could even surf the web while driving, having the text of web pages read to them with a text-to-voice interface! Commutes represent the one part of the day when users actually have some extra time for using new services.

(Read more)

Topics:

Observed

Customer service

GPS

In this installment of Questions and Answers, we asked our call center about the most frequently asked questions they receive during the holiday shopping season and here’s what they said. To get more gift ideas, check out our holiday gift guide. Got a question you want answered? Submit your question here. Got something to add to the answers below? Leave a comment.

Can I upgrade one of the cell phones in my family plan?

The short answer is no. You can, however, upgrade all the phones in a family plan if you’re with AT&T or Verizon Wireless. You may be able to get a great deal on new phones for all family plan members if your existing contract is expiring in two months and you’re willing to sign another service contract.

How do I keep my cell phone number when I switch carriers?

You can keep your cell phone number when you change service providers. Due to the way we facilitate this change, you’ll need to be in the same general location. For example, if you live in San Francisco and are changing your service provider and keeping the same cell phone number it’s no problem. However, if you live in San Francisco and are moving to say, Chicago, you will not be able to transport your cell phone number. If this is an important feature for you and you want to keep your San Francisco based cell phone number when you move to Chicago, you should make the switch before you move and update your billing address when you move to Chicago in order to keep your existing San Francisco cell phone number.

Note: When you move service for one cell phone number to another service provider, it’s the entire number including the area code. You can’t just take the 7-digit aspect of the phone number and change the area code.

Can I send text messages if I don’t have a text message plan?

Typically, you can. However, there is the rare instance where some cell phones (Read more)

Topics:	Verizon Wireless	Text messaging	AT&T Wireless	Customer service
	Q&A

We asked Bloggers around the Internet for their opinion on voice recognition software and it's use on cell phones. Our next post comes from David Mould. To read more from David, check out Orient Expression:

What is the end game for voice based interfaces? Truly hands free operation.

The impact then will be in services that are one or more of:

• key intensive
• time intensive

Key intensive activities are those that require many key strokes, e.g. navigating IVR or text messages. Many handsets today (the Nokia E50 for one) have message readers that provide alternative methods for reading received SMS's. With the growing restrictions on use of mobile devices whilst driving a service that allows you to dictate and send an SMS through a voice interface, opposed to keyboard strokes, could prove to be very popular and useful.

Google's mobile service provides such a text message service that can be used to "write" and SMS. An awkward fit in the voice SMS space is the Bubble Talk application. Essentially a voice SMS that inserts a voicemail into the recipients queue without their phone ringing.

This is one use of the Google service but the main service, available from other providers such as Jingle Networks, is directory services. You can use the voice interface to search for services and typically will be connected automatically.

A directory search would normally be a time intensive and/or key intensive activity. By creating an access channel via voice turns the interaction more into a conversation or discussion. This has the benefit of creating appeal in less technically able groups who look for a more familiar access path.

Further examples of time and key intensive functions are navigation through IVR for actions such as:

• Balance checking
• Pre Paid top up
• Payment checks

Virgin mobile in the UK has a fairly efficient service that does a pretty good job of opening up the IVR menu to a voice interface. The usual troubles caused by accent and background noise can still confuse the system though. Virgin has expanded the service into the 4321 Talk service that allows subscribers to get updates on Sport, Soap Operas, News, Weather etc through a simple voice command set.

Another player in this area is TellMe which offers voice search as well as a application that can be downloaded to view the results on your device.

Other application approaches to voice access is the offering provided by MobiVox (Read more)

Topics:

Observed

Text messaging

E-mail

We know finding the perfect gift is no easy accomplishment. In our final installment of holiday gifts, we have picks for the women in your life. You can see a complete list of holiday picks in our Holiday Gift Guide.

What to get the City Chic: She’s got a sense of style that comes straight off the pages of Vogue and Elle. So why not give her the cell phone that compliments her fashion savvy? That’s right, the LG Shine. It’s a slick looking cell phone that’s as shiny as a mirror so she can easily touch up her make-up in a pinch.

A Little Something Extra: Since she’s so stylish, she’s probably got a social life to match. Help her find the best places to dine with a year subscription to Zagat To Go that’s available right on her cell phone.

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

AT&T Wireless

LG

Accessories

Everyday we're bringing you more cell phone and accessory picks for everyone on your holiday gift list. In today's edition check out gift ideas for the man about town and multimedia lovers. You can see a complete list of holiday picks in our Holiday Gift Guide.

What to get for the TV Junkie: They were probably the first person you knew to own a Tivo and years later, they likely have a DVR for each TV in the house. Simply, put they just can’t get enough TV. The TV watching experience doesn’t have to end when they leave the house. They can take it with them and watch some shows on their cell phone. Get them the Verizon LG VX9400 and they’ll have Mobile TV on the go.

A Little Something Extra: Help them watch TV or take calls in stereo with the Nokia BH500 Bluetooth headphones. These headphones are comfortable to wear and deliver audio in full stereo.

What to get the Stylish Stud: He looks like he walked right off the pages of GQ or Details. He’s got it all: good looks, his own style and a penchant for the good life. Give him the Motorola Razr 2. After all, it’s a lot like him: easy on the eyes and super slick.

A Little Something Extra: Even hot guys use Bluetooth headsets, but they’re stylish enough to remove it once they’re done using it. That’s why the BlackBerry Bluetooth headset is a good fit. When not in use, it can be stored in a nifty pen case ala James Bond.

Topics:	Somethin' To Talk About	Nokia	Motorola	Verizon Wireless
	Sprint	LG	Video	T-Mobile
	Bluetooth	Accessories

We asked Bloggers around the Internet for their opinion on voice recognition software and it's use on cell phones. Our first post comes from Mark Milliman. To read more from Mark, check out his blog:

Speech recognition has been relegated to a myopic set of applications such as looking up telephone numbers or retrieving flight information. A narrow vocabulary is easier for speech recognition software to implement accurately. Speech recognition is also challenged by noisy backgrounds. Noise removal algorithms help considerably. The quality of speech recognition software and noise removal algorithms will improve accuracy enough for developers to consider a wider set of applications beyond single purpose functions.

Speech is a great and natural interface for us to use, but past accuracy problems makes users reluctant to rely on applications built around speech interfaces. If people have to say their input more than twice, they become frustrated and quickly stop using the application. Mobile devices and applications are a great places to implement voice interfaces because of the small size of the mobile device and state laws against using them in automobiles. Anything that uses a remote control is a perfect place to substitute a voice interface. How about changing the channel on the TV just by shouting, "Up Channel?"

Local search, information, and directions on location-aware mobile devices are a great application for voice recognition. I would love to have an application on my phone and Treo where I could activate it from my Bluetooth headset to find out the nearest gas station, bar, or traffic conditions. For instance I could ask it for the nearest gas station and it would show me on the screen and read to me the top results where I could chose one from a menu. Once I choose a station, I would have choices to call, map, direct, or more information. Results would be read and shown on the display for me to view. This single application could do all of these functions without resorting to the keypad. The value comes from hands-free operation aggregating all of the information I may want about my environment at that specific time.

Sprint (Read more)

Topics:

Observed

Sprint

Bluetooth

We know finding the perfect gift is no easy accomplishment. Of course, we're here to help. So, we're bringing you cell phone and accessory picks for everyone on your holiday gift list. You can see a complete list of holiday picks in our Holiday Gift Guide.

What to get for Texting Tweens: The kids love to text, so why not help them out with a Samsung Blast cell phone. It sports a SureType keypad, which has just two letters on each key, which will ultimately make them faster texters.

A Little Something Extra: Another cool thing about the Samsung Blast besides that it comes in a black and red casing is that it plays music too. Give them something to listen to with a $25 eMusic gift card.

What to get for Cool College Kids: They went off to school with trunks of clothes and new dorm room bedding. The one thing not upgraded on their college list of must haves was probably a new cell phone. Why not give them one that will help them get to class on time and look good doing it, such as the LG enV? You might even get a few extra text messages next semester since their so quick to tap out on the hidden QWERTY keyboard.

A Little Something Extra: There’s nothing like releasing a little extra energy after weeks of studying for finals. Why not give them a way to funnel their creative juices by signing them up for an account at ToneMine where they can mix their own ringtones. Best part about this gift: It’s free to use and share new tones with other community members.

Topics:	Somethin' To Talk About	Verizon Wireless	Music	Text messaging
	Samsung	Ringtones	LG	E-mail
	T-Mobile	Accessories

What is it? The Body Glove Scuba Case for iPhone. This rubberized casing is shock absorbent and water-resistant.

How much? It’s $14.99, down from $18.99.

Why is it such a good deal? It’s a pretty inexpensive way to keep your iPhone protected from daily wear and tear. Remember, replacing an iPhone isn’t exactly cheap.

Topics:

In The Know

Accessories

We know finding the perfect gift is no easy accomplishment. Of course, we're here to help. So, we're bringing you cell phone and accessory picks for everyone on your holiday gift list. You can see a complete list of holiday picks in our Holiday Gift Guide.

What to get for a Jukebox Hero: We all have those special experts in our lives, the ones we ask for great restaurant recommendations or consult when we want to be turned onto the latest in new music. A great choice for your favorite music lover is the Samsung SGH-A737, a cell phone made for music complete with a 3.5mm headset jack so they can use their own headphones to listen to tunes stored on their cell phone. In addition, it comes with a free year subscription to Napster To Go when purchased with an unlimited data plan. So they’ll be turning you onto new music all year long.

A Little Something Extra: Music lovers just want to hear their tunes wherever they go and they’re even happier to recruit new listeners. What better way to do that than by getting them the BlueAnt portable speakers. They can simply plug their cell phone or even MP3 player into the speakers and voila it’s a music system to go.

What to get for the Photo Fanatic: They’re in very few pictures, but have a larger photo gallery than most people in your inner circle. That’s right, they’re the person always behind the camera and rarely in front of it. They might not always have their camera with them, but there’s no reason they shouldn’t have a high-quality camera within quick reach. That’s why the Nokia N95 with a 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens and 8GB of storage for saving all those pics is a perfect gift for them.

A Little Something Extra: It can take a lot of concentration to capture a picture worth a thousand words. Why not help them keep their focus with the Altec Lansing InMotion iM716 earbuds, which are designed to block out all sounds.

Topics:	Phone Smarts	Nokia	Music	AT&T Wireless
	Samsung	Symbian	Camera	Smart phones
	T-Mobile	Bluetooth	Accessories

In this installment of Questions and Answers, we tackle car cell phone etiquette and European travel options. Got a question you want answered? Submit your question here. Got something to add to the answers below? Leave a comment.

Can I use my cell phone when I have a passenger in my car? – Sammantha

Let’s first address talking on a cell phone while driving. Cell phone driving laws vary by state. In some states and even some counties you can talk on your cell phone in others you can’t. However, you can use a Bluetooth headset while driving. You can see full information on driving laws by state in our Cell Phone Driving Laws by State article.

Now, should you be talking on a cell phone when you have a passenger in the car? Well that depends on the passenger and why you need to speak on the cell phone in the first place. There are many scenarios to consider: Maybe you’re getting directions to your next destination? In that case, talking on the cell phone wouldn’t necessarily be considered rude; instead it would be a bit of a necessity. However, if you’re having a social call with a passenger in the car, well that’s probably not so fun for the passenger. Additionally, you lack privacy: meaning the passenger can hear everything you say and in many cases, depending on the volume set on your cell phone, they can probably hear what the person on the other end of the call is saying as well.

It really comes down to obeying the driving laws and consideration for others in the car. Remember, they’re not on a bus and can’t really get up and move to another seat if they don’t want to listen to your call.

If I need a cell phone for trips to Europe once or twice a year, what is my best alternative? - Elaine

All the carriers seem to have options for customers traveling to Europe, however, this isn’t always the most budget conscious option. The good news is that if you go this route you can usually keep the same cell phone (Read more)

Topics:	Etiquette	Cell phone plans	Driving laws	BlackBerry
	International	Travel	Bluetooth	Q&A

We know finding the perfect gift is no easy accomplishment. Of course, we're here to help. To kick off December we're bringing you cell phone and accessory picks for everyone on your holiday gift list. You can see a complete list of holiday picks in our Holiday Gift Guide.

What to get for Kids who Rock: Know a budding musician? They can’t help but feel the music wherever they go. Turn them onto the Sony Ericsson W580i. It’s got an interface that’s built to please the younger audience and the best part is it has a Shake control. No need to press controls to skip to the next song, simply Shake the cell phone while the music is playing and go to the next song. Pretty cool and fun to use - that’s hard to beat.

A Little Something Extra: No music phone is complete with out a Bluetooth stereo headset. The Motorola S9 go beyond typical design with an inspired sporty flair. Plus, this particular model comes with an adapter so they can be used with an iPod as well.

What to get for MySpace Teens: Have a teenager in your life who just can’t stop checking out their MySpace page? Consider getting them a Sidekick ID, which comes with easy access to their own and all their friends MySpace pages. Just be sure to get an unlimited data plan with it, downloading multiple MySpace sites can eat up data quickly.

A Little Something Extra: Couple the Sidekick ID with a YouGetItBack security tag, which gives you 3 years of peace of mind for just $10. It’s like a virtual lost and found system that’s a cinch to use.

Topics:	Phone Smarts	Motorola	Music	AT&T Wireless
	Sony Ericsson	T-Mobile	Bluetooth	Accessories
	Security

We know finding the perfect gift is no easy accomplishment. Of course, we're here to help. To kick off December we're bringing you cell phone and accessory picks for everyone on your holiday gift list. You can see a complete list of holiday picks in our Holiday Gift Guide.

Desperate Housewife She’s not the woman who has everything. She’s the woman in your life who does everything. Help her get a handle on her schedule, keep up with all her messages and even show off pics of the kids on a new BlackBerry Pearl. Why not keep her on course by selecting one of the new Verizon or Sprint versions of the Pearl, which has a nifty GPS tool on board. Remember, women actually ask for directions when they get lost.

A Little Something Extra: Does your lovely lady spend all her time in the car? Why not deck it out with the Motorola T305, a portable Bluetooth car kit, which actually clips to the visor and funnels calls from your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone through the car stereo. She’ll be the envy of all the neighbors and you can even easily use it in your car too.

Big Daddy: He’s the man of the house and really loves his gadgets. Why not get him a souped’ up cell phone complete with all the bells and whistles available? The Motorola Q9m is one sweet smartphone. It’s great for fun or for work. It supports multiple e-mail addresses, streaming video over a true high-speed 3G connection (read: smooth streaming media) and the Internet browser is convenient for checking the latest sports scores.

A Little Something Extra: If he loves his gadgets, he’ll absolutely love Sling Media’s Slingbox AV. Once he hooks this up he could be watching his favorite sporting shows on his Motorola Q9m wherever he goes.

Topics:	Phone Smarts	Motorola	Verizon Wireless	Sprint
	Parents	BlackBerry	Windows Mobile	Smart phones
	Bluetooth	Accessories

We asked Bloggers around the Internet for their favorite camera phone applications. Here’s a post from Joseph Hunkins at Joe Duck that explains some hurdles yet to be overcome to have a more seamless cell phone photo sharing experience:

My camera phone usage with my Treo 650 probably falls very squarely in the middle ground here, perhaps making me a sort of "Joe Sixpack" of cellular photography. Although, I put a *lot* of pictures online my preference is a quality digital picture uploaded to Flickr. I'd like to have a seamless way to get the Treo pix online but, frankly, I have not prioritized this after many frustrations trying to overcome other Treo deficiencies.

When I don't have my camera with me, which is "too often,” I wind up taking some interesting pix on the Treo from Internet conferences and such. Unfortunately, these do not find their way online quickly because synching the Treo is a laborious process and then I have to process and upload to Flickr. Not a huge technical deal, but just one more task that often finds its way to the "later" pile of things to do.

Many would suggest I should find a good way to upload the pictures to my blog or to a site right after I take them, but this is generally not going to be convenient for me, especially in a conference setting where you might get a shot of an internet luminary but won't be able to take the time to upload it until later.

The solution for me to get my camera phone pix online fast? A Treo application that would seamlessly upload my pictures to my Flickr account without any extra steps. The solution for others? I assume there are many in the same boat as me: they take a lot of camera pictures but then load those to the computer and then upload again to photo sites. Flickr's superb uploader makes this fairly easy, but in total it is a chore to take the steps needed from phone to PC to Flickr. I understand some web-enabled cameras make the upload process fairly seamless, and I think this seamlessness is the key facilitator of getting pix online.

WayMarkr is a very cool idea but has a technophobe problem that is best explained simply by noting the wording in "Step 1" of their installation instructions, which I assume are actually pretty easy - they just don't sound like it and people therefore may not even look any further:

1. Download WayMarkr to your Internet enabled Series 60 mobile phone by entering http://get.waymarkr.com in your mobile device's browser.

3guppies (Read more)

Topics:

Phone Smarts

Palm

Camera

Smart phones

We know finding the perfect gift is no easy accomplishment. Of course, we're here to help. To kick off December we're bringing you cell phone and accessory picks for everyone on your holiday gift list.

What to get for the Frequent Flier: Business? Pleasure? Maybe a professional jetsetter? Whatever the reason, these folks probably have enough frequent flyer miles racked up to bring the entire family home for the holidays. So why not get them a cell phone that will work on just about any landing strip? That would be the BlackBerry 8830 world edition, which will work on both GSM and CDMA networks. There won’t be many places where they won’t be able to stay in touch.

A Little Something Extra: Did you know that you can now watch videos and listen to music on many of the BlackBerry 8800 series cell phones? It even comes with cool Roxio software to make it an easy transition. But to really take advantage of this feature you’ll need an external MicroSD memory card. We recommend getting a 1GB or larger card, so you won’t run out of room.

What to get for the Connected Commuter: Whether traveling by car, bus or train, commuters tend to be great multitaskers. It can be something as simple as checking and responding to e-mail before arriving at the office, or catching up on news and reading blogs on the way home. The Samsung BlackJack II can handle those tasks and more with ease, making it a great fit for the commuter in your life.

A Little Something Extra: Commuters who use public transportation to get to and from work know that having conversations on the cell phone during commuter hours can be a faux paux, but that doesn’t mean they have to miss your message. Get them SimulScribe for their cell phone. It’s a nifty application that transcribes voicemails into text and then delivers messages via text or e-mail to your cell phone.

Topics:	Phone Smarts	Samsung	BlackBerry	Windows Mobile
	Smart phones	Travel	Business Use	E-mail
	Accessories

What is it? The Pantech Duo is a dual slider, which means it slides up to reveal a keypad and slides sideways to display a full QWERTY keyboard. Some might call the Duo the mullet of cell phones (in a good way) with its slide sideways for the keyboard and business and slide up for partying with the numeric keys. In addition to having a serious and playful side, this AT&T smartphone runs Windows Mobile 6 and supports video share so you can see something, share it and talk about it all at once with anyone else on AT&T and a video share enabled cell phone.

How much? Just $49.99 after rebates (down from $69.99)

Why is it such a good deal? We’re offering the Pantech Duo for $200 less than at the carrier stores and $150 less than competing products (the Ocean).

Topics:	In The Know	AT&T Wireless	Windows Mobile	Smart phones
	Business Use	Video	E-mail

Not sure what to make of the camera phone applications landscape? This post from Derek Kerton provides a good overview:

There's no doubt that the carrier's preferred way of using the camera on the phone hasn't panned out. Somehow, people just weren't enamored with the prospect of snapping a photo and sending it via $1 MMS. Wow. Who knew that in an age of unlimited data, 10 years after the popularization of unlimited email on the desktop, people would balk at spending up to $1 to send a photo. (Editorial note: Many text plans include MMS messages as part of the package)

And historically, there has been no easy way to get the photo out of the phone for free. The upshot is that most photos taken on a phone may get used as wallpaper or other phone display applications, but never leave the phone. The lens becomes a novelty that wears off as people realize it doesn't integrate with their existing photo collection. To see the scope of the problem, have a look at these Google results for the search term "Get photos off mobile phone". Clearly, this is a pain point.

This problem was totally obvious by 2004, yet to this day, I still hear new startups tell me the problem (as if it's a revelation), and then explain that they have a solution. If you're a startup just out of the gates today with such a solution, you've got an uphill battle to wage against the people two years ahead of you.

Ultimately, will it be startups who provide the solution, or standards bodies? I propose the latter. Really, what's going to allow people to move photos out of their cell phones in the near future is phones with greater functionality, built in an era of decreasing power of walled gardens. More and more cell phones feature at least one of: Bluetooth with file transfer profiles enabled, a removable memory card, an open OS with standard apps for moving photos, an email enabled cell phone that allows emailing photos, a smartphone that syncs to desktop software, a phone with a USB cable that can act as a mass storage device to your PC. I've got a Nokia N95 that actually has PictBridge software built-in.

But you want to know what people are using today? I'm using Kyte.tv (Read more)

Topics:

Phone Smarts

Camera

Smart phones

Accessories

In this installment of Questions and Answers, we tackle BlackBerrys and the secrets to super fast texting. Got a question you want answered? Submit your cell phone question here. Got something to add to the answers below? Leave a comment.

I have an old BlackBerry model (T-7100, I think) with the small keyboard. I think I want the Pearl, but I don't know who to pick as my carrier. I want the one that will get me my emails the quickest. I've had T-Mobile and it’s not fastest enough for me. I don’t think Verizon lets you buy a monthly insurance that covers your BlackBerry in case of loss (for replacement.) - Confused

If you're main concern is pushing email to your phone quicker, you should know that you can request how often it gets pushed to your phone. I've reviewed the BlackBerry on all major carriers and found that Verizon and Sprint are both pretty fast and they both offer the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 now (Though not in all the colors available on T-Mobile or AT&T). As for your insurance question, I'm pretty sure Verizon lets you buy phone insurance, but you have to do it within the first 15 days of owning the equipment. Note: you can only replace a lost or damaged phone 3 times a year.

Is there some secret text handshake that I did not learn so it now takes me 10 minutes to write “Thanks – c u soon” in text as opposed to the girl next to me in the park who can do it with her phone behind her back and in 3 seconds, without abbreviating? - Jim

There’s no secret handshake that you aren’t privy too. Not to put down your texting skills, she’s probably just a faster texter than you. That said, there is another possibility: She probably has the phrase stored in her Quick Text options. It can be called many different things on many different cell phones, but Quick Text is essentially a list of pre-scripted text phrases that come loaded on most handsets and you can add frequently used phrases to this list as well. Once you have a Quick Text saved, simply input the cell phone number of the person you want to text in the To: field and choose Quick Text (or comparable feature), highlight your phrase, select OK and viola it will appear in the message. No three-tap typing needed.

Topics:	Verizon Wireless	Text messaging	AT&T Wireless	Sprint
	BlackBerry	E-mail	T-Mobile	Q&A

We asked Bloggers around the Internet about how they use the camera in their cell phones and what if anything they wish camera phones could do better. Our next post comes from David Cassel of Tech.Blorge.com and discusses an option for Motorola cell phones:

My Motorola phone was nearly useless until I found a good photo-managing application. To get a photo off my phone, I had to navigate through all the following menus!

Multimedia / Pictures / View / Menu / Send In Message / OK / Add Email Address / Done

I solved this problem with the Motorola Phone Tools ENU.

It was a little annoying having to buy this separately — it cost almost $40 — but it allows easy synching with the PC to download all the photos. The software displays thumbnails of every picture and lets me select which ones I want. (And I'm also able to upload photos to my cell phone, if there's an image I want as my cell phone background.) It even lets me put a Christmas-y "frame" around photos, or upload appropriate clip art for inserting into messages.

But it doesn't do everything. For example, it won't rotate the photos, which can leave images tilted 90 degrees. Once an image is on my PC, though, I adjust it using Paint Shop Pro. (Since Motorola's Phone Tools software displays the photos as a directory of files, clicking their thumbnails will prompt Windows to display them automatically in the graphics-editing software I've associated with image files.) The Motorola package really needs a better way to review images, but I've found a way to work around that. I created an HTML web page on my hard drive to display each downloaded image at a more appropriate size!

The software does have a lot of other features. Cell phone photos can be converted into a desktop wallpaper image or even a screen saver. And other features offer the luxurious ability of updating your calendar and phone book using your computer's keyboard, or even using it to send text messages. Unfortunately, the interface for all these features is surprisingly difficult. So yes, the Motorola (Read more)

Topics:

Phone Smarts

Motorola

Camera

We asked Bloggers around the Internet about how they use the camera in their cell phones and what if anything they wish camera phones could do better. Our first post comes from David Mould of Orient Expression:

The idea of a camera on a mobile phone has been around for about 10 years but has really become common place for less then 5 years. Personally I have found limited uses for my camera to date:

• Photo reminders or a to do list mind jogger
• Potential use for evidence in the event of a car accident
• Occasional photos if I don't have my camera with me

However there are many users out there that do use their cameras more frequently. To help this market get the best out of their photography there are a series of application providers that assist in unloading, storing and sharing the output of the little clear lens on the back of your hand phone:

• Shozu - Takes the images and uploads them to Flickr for easy sharing with friends
• ZoneTag - Another Flickr manager that also adds cell tags to help with the location mapping of the image 
• Radar - Works differently by sharing images through MMS broadcast to your friends as well being able to manage them on the web

A different approach is Waymarkr, I first saw this application trialled on UK Channel 5's the Gadget Show. The camera is used to take stop motion, as used in cartoons and flick books, to "film" your day as you walk around your environment. You then get to see a CCTV like film of your travels that you can then share with your friends. The services mentioned so far are all free but starting to make an impact. SprintNextel are looking to use the camera phone as an additional revenue stream and are offering PhotoShare for a nominal fee.

This social networking and community concept works well with the camera phone is on the leading edge of a larger trend of community generated content that will start to form the core of mobile communication over the next 5 years or so. But what are the other uses for that handy phone cam?

1. Instant reminders and minutes of meetings - I do use the camera to take a snap shot record of work carried out on a whiteboard before it's lost to the cleaners. Qipit (Read more)

Topics:

In The Know

Camera

The big news today is that by the second half of 2008, Verizon Wireless will begin allowing other compatible devices and applications to be used on its network. The devices will have to submit to testing by Verizon to ensure they will indeed work on the company’s CDMA network, once approved (which the company says it shouldn’t take too long) customers with those devices will be able to activate the approved device on the Verizon Wireless network either by calling a phone number or online via the device. Pricing plans for customers who choose to use this option have not been discussed. Additionally, customers will be able to download more applications to their devices as well that might not already be approved by Verizon Wireless. In this scenario it will be up to the application providers to ensure that the applications will work.

That’s the news, but what does it mean to you? Well, quite a lot actually. For starters, if you have a CDMA-based cell phone that you like a ton but wanted to switch to Verizon service and couldn’t because your handset isn’t supported by the company, you may be able to do so now (if the cell phone gets approved). Or say, in a few months time, a new CDMA-based cell phone comes out that you really, really want, but it’s not offered by Verizon you can still get it and (again, so long as the cell phone is approved) you can use it with a Verizon service plan.

Besides the fact that the question, “I have a Sprint phone, can I use it with Verizon service?” has just been answered to a degree, the real news is that this could signal a bigger change in how long we hold onto cell phones, how many more wireless devices (gaming, notebooks, high-speed data cards, etc) will be flowing into the market, and if more carriers will follow suit. Now, clearly, this switching service providers but keeping the handset has been an option for GSM-based cell phones to a degree. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not exactly easy (you do need the handset’s unlock code) and you do miss out on some of the services provided by the GSM service provider’s network you’re using. This news makes it a lot more viable option for CDMA cell phones as well. (Read more)

Topics:

Observed

Verizon Wireless

Cell phone plans

What is it? You Get it Back (YGIB) security tag for your cell phone. Simply stick the included sticker (it’s indestructible, trust me) on your phone, wallet, etc. Register at the YouGetItBack.com site and if an honest person finds it (which it turns out most people are) they dial the number on the back and YGIB sets up a swap.

How much? It costs $10 and if you lose your product, you can add an optional reward amount for your cell phone’s safe return.

Why is it such a good deal? Once activated, your security tag is good for 3 years. Ten bucks for three years of knowing if you lose your cell phone that there’s a 75% chance of getting it back is highly affordable for your piece of mind.

Topics:

In The Know

Accessories

Security

We asked Bloggers around the Internet for insights about Google’s Android cell phone platfrom and what it means to consumers and the cell phone industry security. Our final post comes from Steve Litchfield:

If it wasn't for Google's name at the top of the 'alliance' list, I'd write off the entire project as 'going to waste a lot of people’s time and unlikely to produce any products of note. However, Google has the brand, the resources and the financial muscle to help the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) work.

It should be borne in mind that creating a modern phone operating system is hard though. The alliance will find it easy to produce mid-level, unadventurous phones, but competing with Nokia's flagship S60 smartphones and Apple's iPhone is another matter. Creating a 3.5G aware OS, with Wi-Fi and WiMax, Bluetooth 2.0 and other communications technologies all thrown into the mix and expected to work seamlessly together on a single chip is very, very hard. Symbian has managed it after years of hard work, Microsoft has more or less cracked it (just) and Apple is still climbing the learning curve. Muscling into this arena with a new OS is a very brave thing to do.

Sounding a cautionary note on the Android saga, it's unlikely that any significant features will appear only on an OHA platform/device. Google's own applications already run on all existing smartphones, whether S60, Windows Mobile 6 or even the iPhone (with Apple's help!) and the degree to which Google-produced native PIM/email/Office/mapping software is available on the existing market leaders is not going to reduce. In fact, it will increase; making it even harder for OHA devices to make an impact in the future.

A secondary cautionary note needs to be that devices based on Android won't be in the shops until the END of 2008, realistically, and possibly even later. That's a lot of time in the cell phone business and Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, HTC, Samsung (Read more)

Topics:	Somethin' To Talk About	Windows Mobile	Symbian	Smart phones
	GPS	E-mail

Had enough football and Thanksgiving feast? Maybe, now you're dreaming of heading out of town after the holidays. T-Mobile is offering a way to help make part of that dream a reality. This weekend (starting today) November 23rd to November 25th, when you sign up for a 2-year MyFaves contract, T-Mobile is offering eligible customers a free roundtrip plane ticket to one of these 10 cities: Las Vegas, New York City, Los Angeles, Orlando, Miami, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, and Washington, D.C.

Topics:

In The Know

Cell phone plans

Travel

T-Mobile

We asked Bloggers around the Internet for insights about Google’s Android cell phone platform and what it means to consumers and the cell phone industry security. Our first post comes from Rick Frauton of FeedLion:

The announcement of Google's open source mobile platform, Android, has spurred a shock wave of buzz and speculation of potential implications for the mobile Internet sector. I foresee Android setting a new standard in mobile computing and delivering it to a mass audience. Call it evolution.

One key possibility that seems imminent is the interactivity between different functions of a given handset. Cell phones today are commonly equipped with SMS, digital camera and camcorder, Internet browsers, advanced contacts management tools and calendars, MP3 players, voice recorders, GPS navigation, BlueTooth, and the list continues to grow. From an application developer's standpoint, the inability to integrate these functions and make them work together currently prevents lots of cool things from happening. Therefore, since Google has a knack for solving problems like this, I predict that Android will make functional integration possible, even if it means allowing someone else to develop it.

Consumers will have access to smarter phone applications that tie-in all of their phone's capabilities to make life easier. Imagine yourself reading a cool article via your mobile Internet browser -- you decide to share it with your colleague, but how? If your mobile browser could talk to your phone's SMS capability, you could send your colleague a text message with the URL. This may sound simple, but this sort of interactivity is not possible on today's mainstream handsets. So when?

The first Android-based phone will not ship until the latter half of 2008, so consumers will have to sit tight until then. Once the ball gets rolling however, Android is likely to trigger an avalanche of competition, provoking other players in the industry to step up their game. Another key point for consumers is that Google's success is tied to providing consumers with ground-breaking technology at no cost to the end-user. Instead, advertising will be integrated so that corporate sponsors will cover any development costs (and then some!).

Android will raise the bar for the whole industry, to the benefit of consumers, and by offering an open platform they encourage every software developer around the globe to continue raising it. Exciting times are ahead in mobile computing!

If you want to see more from Rick Frauton, check out FeedLion.

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

GPS

Games

Bluetooth

We asked Bloggers around the Internet for insights about Google’s Android cell phone platfrom and what it means to consumers and the cell phone industry security. Our first post comes from David Casse of Tech.Blorge.com:

Android's real significance is for handsets that already compete with the iPhone. These phones will be able to use Google's Android platform in the future -- and more importantly, they'll be compatible with every exciting new phone application that's developed for Android.

This is more significant than it seems. If you ask, what is a cell phone -- beyond voice, what additional features are consumers looking for? -- You’ll realize there's no consensus answer. This "device category" is still new, which creates a very real opportunity for the classic "killer application." Just one indispensably-useful application would make Google's Android platform a must-have platform, re-defining the entire cell phone industry.

And it will probably be more than one. To see what might be coming for the Android platform, look at what's already been developed using Google's tools for grass roots programmers. Google Maps spawned dozens of creative mashups, including the ability to access location-sensitive bar guides, fast food restaurants, and NASA topographical data. One Google Maps mashup even shows news articles for map locations -- and another even shows Wikipedia entries!

These become even more useful with the addition of a global positioning system -- and Google has already integrated GPS capabilities in their Helio handheld. The Helio was marketed to tech-savvy consumers, so it gives another hint about Google's long-range amibitions. One of Helio's most unique features was its "Buddy Beacon," which instantly displayed the location of your friends on a map, based on the current position of their own Helio device.

Now imagine Google's Android platform being integrated with MySpace or Facebook -- with dozens of online acquaintances suddenly pinpointed at their "real space" locations. Since it's an open source platform, this could easily be developed -- and there's no reason other popular web destinations couldn't also port themselves onto Android-compatible devices. YouTube could not only develop the ability to display their videos on handheld devices, but the ability to easily share those videos with other handheld users. There could even be migrations to "cell phone space" by the users of massively multiplayer games (Read more)

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

GPS

What is it? We’re expanding last week’s great deal to include all 3G AT&T cell phones that support Napster To Go out-of-the-box. You can choose from 8 different models that will give you a super high-speed web surfing experience on your cell phone, plus a free one-year subscription to Napster To Go.

How much? Get 1 year of Napster To Go and a 2GB microSD card free when you purchase one of these AT&T cell phones when you sign-up for a new service plan and an unlimited data plan (while supplies last).

Why is it such a good deal? We wanted to give customers more cell phone options, so we included all 3G AT&T cell phones that support Napster To Go out-of the-box.

Topics:	In The Know	Music	AT&T Wireless	Cell phone plans
	Storage	Accessories

There's a new Guinness world record holder in New Zealand...for blind(folded) texting. According to this Stuff article, the new record for texting a 160 character message blindfolded goes to 17-year old Elliot Nicholls who broke the previous one minute and 23 second record by completing the message in 45 seconds. The article also states that Nicholls wears a wrist support for a boxing injury, but I can't help but wonder if texting 50 messages a day and training to break this record has a little something to do with it.

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

Text messaging

In this installment of Questions and Answers, we tackle Bluetooth and lost cell phones. Got a question you want answered? Submit your cell phone question here. Got something to add to the answers below? Leave a comment.

My daughter got the 1st version of the Verizon Chocolate phone. She has her old phones, and friends in which she can Bluetooth ringtones to the phones, but with the new Verizon Chocolate phone she can't do this. She can only find a device like a headset or something. The ringtones and things are not locked or anything. It’s like there is an area of the program missing or something. Does anyone know if there is a code to unlock this? She just wants to pair devices via Bluetooth with friends? - Alanna

Unfortunately, you can’t send music via Bluetooth from the Verizon Chocolate cell phone. If she has a MicroSD card she can try getting stuff from her friends cell phones onto her cell phone that way. However, if the music she wants on her cell phone has a Digital Rights Management code she probably won’t be able to play them on her new cell phone, since it limits the amount of devices that can play the music.

My cell phone was stolen. When I dialed my phone number I talked to someone. I have since closed my phone number. Can my cell phone be located? - Charles

Having a cell phone stolen is definitely a trying experience. For some, cell phones have become such an essential part of life that losing it can leave them feeling a bit stranded without all their information. Just because cell phones can be located by various methods doesn’t mean they will be. For example, if you’re (Read more)

Topics:	Verizon Wireless	Storage	Ringtones	LG
	GPS	Bluetooth	Accessories	Q&A

We asked Bloggers around the Internet for insights about cell phone security. Our final post in this series comes from Dameon Welch-Abernathy:

As mobile phones become more and more capable, security issues similar to what we see on desktop computers are a natural and expected consequence. The nature of the beast on mobile phones is very different from a typical personal computer, however. Part of this is due to the limited resources, part of this is because the operating system in use is very different from that of a desktop computer.

The single biggest threat on a mobile phone is also the single biggest threat on the desktop: the web browser. As the web browser gets more and more capable, simply visiting a page with carefully crafted Javascript could be enough to cause the cell phone to be subverted for other users. The device itself may not be compromised, but the cell phone could be used as an unwitting participant in hacking into a web site.

For third-party applications, both Windows Mobile and Symbian OS’ make use of application signing. The app can be cryptographically signed so that the content can be verified, if they so desire. S60 3rd Edition, which is Nokia's Symbian implementation, actually requires that all applications be signed. Signatures don't necessarily make it easier to track down a nefarious software author, but they do provide a way to verify that you're installing an application that might have trust issues.

The bottom line is that if you follow safe computing guidelines on your cell phone, you are less likely to be subject to malware or malicious software. This means: 

•  Don't run applications from people you don't know!
•  Browse only to trusted sites on the web.

If you want to see more from Dameon Welch-Abernathy, check out PhoneBoy..

Topics:	Somethin' To Talk About	Nokia	Symbian	Smart phones
	Business Use	Security

We asked Bloggers around the Internet for insights about cell phone security. Steve Litchfield outlines the threat to smartphones and just how easy it is to protect your phone.

Mainstream media will have you believe that your smartphone is horribly at risk from 'mobile malware' (i.e. applications that spread themselves to other devices and do horrid and unspeakable things to yours). The trouble is that almost every story, every press release originates from a security company with a large vested interest in people buying their software. Here's the truth about mobile malware.

The number one thing to emphasize here is that users shouldn't be worried at all. In fact, most of the time they shouldn't even be told about most so called hacks and malware, since most people will NEVER come into contact with anything suspect and the only result of careless reporting will be the spread of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt), which will harm the whole smartphone scene.

Despite the scare stories, the world of malware on current handheld devices is miniscule compared to that on Windows. Mobile operating systems like Symbian OS and Windows Mobile are perfectly secure in terms of not letting 'nasties' in while online, so there's no need for a firewall, an otherwise essential utility on the desktop. OS X, as used on the iPhone, is a lot less secure at the moment because every process, however suspect, can run will full system privileges. But you can bet your last dollar that by the time Steve Jobs releases an iPhone firmware with proper, legal third party app support, there will be proper protections in place.

All known malware applications for mobile devices travel as applications in their own right, usually arriving as an unexpected Bluetooth beamed item or MMS, sent from an 'infected' device. On any smartphone or handheld the user can simply refuse the incoming transmission or not install whatever payload application is received.

Another way for a user to unwittingly receive malware is when installing a so-called 'trojan,’ usually an application that they've seen online on a 'warez' site (hacked copies of commercial applications) and one that also includes malicious content. Because they wanted the 'for free' application they're likely to install this and it's then that their troubles start. Conversely though, if a user stays away from illegal/warez software then they can avoid ever being tricked altogether. Assuming that a user has been tricked into installing something malicious (and trust me, encountering mobile malware should be extremely rare) and has accepted the usual 'Are you sure you want to install' questions, what can such a program get up to?

In the case of a communicator or smartphone based on Symbian OS 9.x, e.g. the Nokia E61, N95 (Read more)

Topics:	Somethin' To Talk About	Nokia	Sony Ericsson	Palm
	Symbian	Smart phones	Bluetooth	Security

We've already begun to rely on our cell phones when we travel, whether it's being able to place a call to make a last minute flight change, check your ticket information via wireless Web access on your cell phone, or even receive flight status alerts. Apparently, soon your cell phone will be even more useful at airports: It can get you on a plane.

In an effort to go paperless and expedite lines at International airports the International Air Transport Association has agreed to begin using digital barcodes that can be printed out or swiped from the screen of a cell phone. According to this article from The Herald, this new form of boarding pass could be in place by the end of the decade.

I think eventually this idea could work, but I initially foresee this will cause quite some confusion at the gate. It will also probably help limit the amount of people talking on a cell phone while waiting in line to board the plane. Now, wouldn't that be something?

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

Travel

We asked Bloggers around the Internet for insights about cell phone security. Is your cell phone really susceptible to the same kinds of viruses that you can get on your computer? Our first post comes from Joeseph Hunkins:

Currently, I'd suggest that users are at the greatest threat from stolen phones, overheard conversations, ringtone scams, and problematic "legitimate" software than from dangerous mobile applications but this is bound to change as data, web surfing, WiFi, and bluetooth capabilities sweep over the mobile market and make it a more lucrative area for illegal activity.

In a recent interview Eric Everson of MyMobisafe software suggested that the four greatest threats to all wireless users are: mobile keyloggers, snoopware, viruses, and hackers. MyMobisafe offers protection for the mobile device by encrypting data at the handset level.

Everson notes that "Most cell phone threats will enter a phone by one of three points of vulnerability which are by inbox messaging, Bluetooth, or WiFi. Most commonly hackers and mobile malware target the inbox as it is a common feature in all phones and has the least amount of security."

AVG anti-virus is now beta testing a similar mobile security solution. See this SlashPhone article about AVG's approach and how to register with AVG for more information about how to get involved in that beta.

Symbian mobile software has a good track record countering malicious activity. From Wikipedia:

Symbian OS has been subject to a variety of viruses, the best known of which is Cabir. Usually these send themselves from phone to phone by Bluetooth. So far, none have taken advantage of any flaws in Symbian OS – instead, they have all asked the user whether they would like to install the software, with somewhat prominent warnings that it can't be trusted.

However, of course, the average mobile phone user shouldn't have to worry about such things, so Symbian OS 9.x has adopted a capability model. Installed software will theoretically be unable to do damaging things (such as costing the user money by sending network data) without being digitally signed – thus making it traceable. (Read more)

Topics:	Phone Smarts	Windows Mobile	Palm	Symbian
	Smart phones	E-mail	Bluetooth	Security

What is it? The Samsung A737 available in three colors: Black & Blue, Orange & Black, and Black & Lime. Samsung continues its classic Boeing jet naming convention with the A737, their newest 3G entry for AT&T. Like its flip predecessor the A707 (AKA the Sync), the Samsung A737 is full of features up and down. High-speed data, large color screen, 1.3-megapixel camera, Stereo Bluetooth, Video Call Sharing . . . and the list goes on and on.

How much? Get 1 year of Napster To Go for free when you purchase an A737 with a new service plan and an unlimited data plan (while supplies last).

Why is it such a good deal? Besides a year of free music, we're including a 2GB MicroSD card to store tons of Napster To Go music. After all, what good is all that music if you can’t take it with you?

Topics:	In The Know	Music	AT&T Wireless	Cell phone plans
	Storage	Samsung	Camera	Video
	Bluetooth	Deal of the Week

In this installment of Questions and Answers, we tackle cell phone etiquette and text-centric relationships. Got a question you want answered? Submit it here. Got something to add to the answers below? Leave a comment.

Why do people have relationships over text messaging? – Carolyn

Texting is an extremely popular way of communicating. It’s fun and a fast way to make plans or exchange messages that you don’t really want or need to say over the phone. Since it’s so fun and let’s admit it, it can also be a little addictive; it’s easy to start texting more than just quick notes or messages verifying plans. Although texting is easy some important subtleties can get lost in translation and sometimes you may not hear back immediately and that can be for reasons (unbeknownst to you) that have nothing to do with you, which can lead to misunderstandings. Communication is tricky even at its best. While texting has done a lot for communication and helping people break the ice it shouldn’t be a crutch either. You should know when things should be said instead of texted. If you don’t know if you should call or text something, chances are you should probably call.

Is it OK to answer a cell phone in a restaurant? – Sam

In a 2006 LetsTalk survey conducted by Harris Interactive, where people were asked if they feel if it is generally acceptable to speak on your cell phone in a restaurant (among other places), 21 percent of those surveyed said yes. Flip that around and you’ve got 79 percent of people who don’t think it’s acceptable. Based on that data, it’s likely that you’re bothering someone by talking on a cell phone in a restaurant. Remember, you’re likely at the restaurant to spend time with someone else, so talking or even texting while at a restaurant with someone can be a turn-off to them as well.

That said, there are times when you may need to use your cell phone in a restaurant: Say, the babysitter or your child is calling with some kind of emergency. Obviously, you’re going to want to take that call, but you might want to be mindful of where you take it. At a table full of people already engaged in conversation might not be the best place. Best bet is to just excuse yourself and step outside or to the restroom area where your call is not likely to bother anyone and you’ll even have a little more privacy.

Topics:

Etiquette

Text messaging

Q&A

Its true, Guitar Hero is expanding its presence beyond the console straight to the cell phone. Verizon Wireless users will be able to download the game on their cell phone in December, according to this CNET article. The service will come with 15 songs and subscribers will get three new songs monthly.

So, I bet you're wondering how on earth can you play guitar hero without a guitar? Good question. Not unlike many cell phone games, you'll be using three keys on the keypad to hit the right chords. I don't think it will be quite the same as rockin' out on the guitar included with the Guitar Hero console game, but I bet it will still be fun. Though, I don't foresee any Guitar Hero mobile bands touring the states any time soon.

Topics:

In The Know

Verizon Wireless

Music

Games

We've mentioned the new ringtone creator tool ToneMine before that LetsTalk recently launched. Then we discovered this video posted by Chris Pirillo on his site. He gives a pretty good demo of how it works that you can watch below and if you haven't triedToneMine for yourself yet, check it out and make your own sweet tones.

Topics:

Phone Smarts

Music

Ringtones

We asked Bloggers around the Internet for insights about music and cell phones. We wanted to know what they use and what they thought would make the ultimate music service for a cell phone. This post from Udi Falkson suggests a web-based music solution:

Music lovers tend to have esoteric tastes and are particular about sound quality. They don't want to be limited to music from one label, and they demand high bitrates. The streaming services offered by today's networks are not the right solution. These people already have iPods full of music that they love. The only motivating factor for them in this space is the ability to reduce the number of devices they have to carry around by merging the phone and the music player. This means that they'll probably end up using cell phones that have the ability to let them play music from their own collection.

In the short term, this means phones with MiniSD cards and headphone jacks (like the Verizon Chocolate) will be the go-to solution for music lovers. As mobile data network speeds continue to increase, they will move to devices that allow them to access their own music collection over the network. Services like Anywhere.FM (a service that lets you upload your music and play it over any Web connection) are the future, and cell phones that allow someone to really access their own music anywhere will be big winners.

If you want to see more from Udi Falkson, check out Udi's Spot.

Topics:

Phone Smarts

Music

We asked Bloggers around the Internet for insights about music and cell phones. We wanted to know what they use and what they thought would make the ultimate music service for a cell phone. Our first post comes from Steve Litchfield:

I know this goes against the grain and against the prevailing industry wisdom that online music stores are both the way forward and the way to make a lot of money, but the constant reliance on DRM-locked solutions are a huge, huge barrier to mainstream acceptance and (most importantly) personal recommendation.

Yes, with modern flat rate data plans it's now just about (only just, mind you) practical to browse and buy music tracks over-the-air, with the associated 'convenience'. But people swap and change phones a lot (two or three times a year in many cases) and each person is going to be extremely annoyed at unnecessary DRM blocks in the way of preserving their new music collection and getting it onto a new device. "What, you mean I've got to buy all those tracks again? Stuff this, I'm not buying music on a phone again!" And so on.

Of course, a totally DRM-free music solution might win people over, but then there are piracy issues that could run rampant and it's doubtful that the increased sales from happier people could outweigh the loss in sales from file copying and piracy. There's no really easy and obvious way to win here. Music piracy is very widespread on the desktop and wider Internet and the only real sales of music are through tightly controlled channels like iTunes and CDs bought by fans who want to own 'product'. I don't believe that mobile-focused music stores will dramatically change the landscape - sorry.

What manufacturers can do is make it much easier and more seamless to transfer music files (bought online or ripped from people's own CDs) from PCs and Macs to phones and smartphones. People expect the digital music world to be seamless and the moment the continuity is broken, their confidence is shaken irrevocably.

If you want to see more from Steve Litchfield, check out his site.

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

Music

Cell phone plans

Storage

What is it? The WiFi-enabled BlackBerry Curve for T-Mobilee. This multimedia BlackBerry even comes with software to automatically transfer media files (movies and music) from your PC to your Curve. It's an embedded Roxio tool that will take a movie and automatically recode it to the proper codec, bit rate, screen dimension and file size to play on your Curve. (Note: You can only do this on unprotected files. Unfortunately, this won't automatically rip a DVD and move it to your Curve.)

How much? Free after rebates.

Why is it such a good deal? We want you to experience the a WiFi-enabled BlackBerry for yourself.

T-Mobilee WiFi-enabled BlackBerry Curve

Topics:	In The Know	Cell phone plans	BlackBerry	Smart phones
	Business Use	WiFi	E-mail	T-Mobile
	Deal of the Week

In this installment of Questions and Answers, we tackle cell phones from abroad and setting downloaded songs as ringtones. Got a question you want answered? Submit it here. Got something to add to the answers below? Leave a comment.

I got a Samsung SGH-D500 and service in England, it is locked for state-side use. How would I get it unlocked and what plans can I use with it? – Shy-lah

Since you got the Samsung phone in England, that means it’s a GSM cell phone. You can get service for it from either AT&T or T-Mobile. However, you may not have access to some of the features offered on AT&T and T-Mobile. This is the case with many unlocked cell phones. To get the unlock code for your Samsung phone, you can call AT&T, T-Mobile or Samsung. One of those companies should be able to help you find the unlock code, which is needed to use service state-side.

Why can’t my music on my phone be my ringtones? - Jim

That’s a great question and you might like to know that you are not alone. Although many cell phones today play music, that doesn’t mean the songs you download to your cell phone can be saved as a ringtone. Frustrating, I know. The simplest answer as to why is because your cell phone just wasn’t set up to handle that. If you can’t do it easily: say, play a song and then click the Options menu where there should be an option to save the song as a ringtone or say, when you're saving a contact and assigning a ringtone, your downloaded songs appear as a ringtone setting, then your cell phone probably doesn’t support this feature. That said, if this is an important feature for you, consider getting a Sony Ericsson or Symbian-based cell phone next. Those models will definitely support the feature.

Topics:	Nokia	Music	AT&T Wireless	Cell phone plans
	Sony Ericsson	Samsung	Ringtones	Symbian
	T-Mobile	Q&A

Here’s another way to access most PIM information on your cell phone from Chris ODonnell.

I actually have one of the low end phones. It's the Virgin Mobile Oystr. Kyocera makes it, not sure what the real model number is. You can do a lot already with the WAP browser and SMS. I can SMS my Google calendar and it immediately returns the day's schedule. I can also do it for at least 1 day looking forward. I can get to my Gmail account on the web browser too.

Almost anything that can be done on an iPhone can be done on just about any other mobile phone. It's not going to be as convenient, and certainly won't be as pretty to look at. But if you need access to data on the web, any WAP enabled phone can handle it. Low end phones generally don't sync with a computer. However, if you sync your desktop applications to the web, all that data will be accessible via the WAP browser. All the major web mail options have a way to sync address books to your local PC. It's simple to route all your email through a web mail service like Gmail. Not only does it act as an automatic back up, it provides remote accessibility via the phone. As a primarily "read" device, the low end phones are quite functional if you put some thought into how you can sync data to the web to make it accessible. As a "write" device, a tiny 12 key number pad is less than desirable. However, the never ending march of more features for less in mobile phones is solving that problem. Virgin Mobile has a new phone that provides a QWERTY keyboard, color screen, 1.3 MB camera and a bunch more. The retail price is $99.

In my view, web based applications are best because they will work the same from both the cell phone and a PC, and the web app will function as the sync point for the anything entered via phone or anything entered via PC. Also, relying on web based apps helps ensure that you don't get stuck with one wireless carrier just because you are hooked on a proprietary application available only in their phones. Twelve months from now, the new Virgin smart phone will be on sale and within reach of just about anybody that wants or needs PIM type features in a wireless device.

If you want to see more from Chris ODonnel, check out his site.

Topics:

Phone Smarts

Text messaging

E-mail

We asked Bloggers around the Internet for Personal Information Manager (PIM) applications for cell phones. Here's one from Dameon Welch-Abernath (aka PhoneBoy) for Nokia cell phones:

Many of the lower-end Nokia devices support something called SyncML. This is built into the phone and can be used for syncing your contacts with a third party server, such as Schedule World or MightyPhone. While it does not enhance the calendar or contact management in the phone, it does provide a way to back up your contacts into the cloud or sync with other services.

If you want to see more from Dameon Welch-Abernath, check out his PhoneBoy site.

Topics:

Phone Smarts

Nokia

Accessories

It's that time of year and people are trying to figure out what to be for Halloween. I've seen a few cell phone related costumes over the years, perhaps my favorite was someone who dressed up as Verizon Wireless' "Can you hear me now?" mascot. He had the jacket, the glasses, and of course a Verizon Wireless cell phone. It was classic. Then I spotted this cell phone costume over at Textually.org. Apparently, there's a whole new twist on kids and cell phones. I think I've seen it all now. Happy Halloween!

Topics:

Observed

Verizon Wireless

Parents

Accessories

We asked Bloggers around the Internet for Personal Information Manager (PIM) applications for cell phones. We waned to know what they use and what they wanted in a PIM, since many basic cell phones don’t have full PIM functionality. Our first post comes from Devin Moore:

There is a dramatic need for a mobile stub into the Google Calendar, for example. All it would need to do is to display the Google calendar entries, and to provide for simple navigation by the phone controls. Adding events might be cumbersome due to the numeric-to-alpha entry issues many cell phones still have, but the ability to enter an event one time and see it "everywhere" would be worth the effort. The calendar would not look ahead farther than i.e. a week, just to prevent the phone's mobile connection from eating up a ton of bandwidth and thus eating minutes.

We’ll have more insight on PIM applications for cell phones tomorrow from another blogger. If you want to see more from Devin Moore, check out his site.

Topics:

Phone Smarts

Accessories

What is it? BlackBerry Accessory Bundle with the BlackBerry HS655 Bluetooth headset. A cool headset that comes with an even pen-style pocket clip charging case that plugs into the same mini-USB style charger as the BlackBerry.

How much? Buy a BlackBerry HS-655 Bluetooth Headset for $94.99 (and that's already wicked cheap, retail is $139.99) and get a BlackBerry car charger and your choice of BlackBerry a case!

Why is it such a good deal? We want you to experience the high quality of BlackBerry brand accessories for yourself.

BlackBerry HS-655 Bluetooth Headset

Topics:	In The Know	BlackBerry	Smart phones	WiFi
	T-Mobile	Bluetooth	Accessories	Deal of the Week

In our first Question and Answer installment, we tackle battery concerns and cell phone compromises. Got a question you want answered? Submit it here. Got something to add to the answers below? Leave a comment.

My officemate insists that you should unplug your charger after charging your cell phone, because either leaving it plugged in all day or using your cell phone when it's plugged in can either fry the cell phone or the charger or the battery. The whole thing sounds like hogwash to me, is there any truth to it? - Annie

Well, she’s right and wrong. You can absolutely use a cell phone while it’s charging. However, she’s not entirely wrong about disconnecting a cell phone from a charger when it’s done charging. Don’t get me wrong, nothing will happen to the cell phone or the battery if you leave it plugged in longer than specified a few times. You just shouldn’t make a habit of it, since over-charging your battery can affect long term performance of your cell phone. You can find out more about cell phone batteries here.

I like my Treo 650 that's a phone, a datebook (with touch screen!), an address book, an Internet connection (if I want it to be), but, frankly, the sound on the phone could be better. And yet . . . I love having one device that does many things. What should I be willing to compromise? I want it all, but I know that's not realistic. - Lisa

You’re not alone. This is a common concern for most people interested in smart phones. As cell phones do more and more there are always compromises. The best thing you can do is make a list of features you want in a cell phone and then prioritize it; with the first thing listed being the most important feature. For example, it seems like call quality is important to you, so perhaps that should rate above a touch screen (though, that is a nifty thing to have). This would give you more choices, such as either a BlackBerry or one of the Nokia N-Series models, which both tend to have pretty good call quality, but lack a touch screen. As you pointed out, it’s all about the compromises.

Topics:

BlackBerry

Symbian

Accessories

Q&A

I spotted this text-based dating info service over on Crave. It's appropriately called PlayerBlock and the idea is that you can use your date's cell phone number to find out just what kind of person you're going to date. For $4.99 a month and your potential date's cell phone number, you can find out what others think of your date and post your own thoughts on the way they conducted themselves with you.

While a little info about someone new can be helpful, there's another thing you can count on too when trying to figure out if someone is a player. It's called your intuition and it's free, you just gotta remember to listen to it.

Topics:

Phone Smarts

Etiquette

Text messaging

LetsTalk.com recently released a new ringtone mixer called ToneMine. It's a pretty cool tool, especially if you have a penchant for mixing your own tunes. There are tons of sounds available that you can use to mix your own sound. But the really cool thing about it is that you can even upload your own sounds to the tool and either leave them as they are or mix them even more. You can choose to share your tones with other people in the ToneMine community or just keep them for yourself. So if you're a member of a garage band, for example, you can record your own session on your computer, upload the sound file to the ToneMine tool and voila, your big hit could easily be transformed into your cell phone ringtone. Even if you're not musically-inclined, like me, it's fun to use and better yet with a one-of-a-kind tone, you won't be reaching into your pocket for your cell phone when someone else's phone with the generic ringtone you already use goes off.

Topics:

Phone Smarts

Music

Text messaging

Ringtones

What is it? The AT&T Tilt. This cell phone, with its hidden keyboard, is like a mini laptop in your hands. Brand new, and just released, the AT&T Tilt features Microsoft Windows Mobile 6, and a blazing fast 3.6mbps 3G HSDPA data speeds. It also sports a 3-megapixel camera and GPS.

How much? $99.99 after rebates with new service.

Why is it such a good deal? This cellphone has so much going for it, we didn’t want you to miss it. So check it out this week, I can't guarantee this price forever.

AT&T Tilt

Topics:	In The Know	AT&T Wireless	Windows Mobile	Camera
	Smart phones	Business Use	GPS	E-mail
	Deal of the Week

In our final installment of new features we're adding to the blog this month, we thought we'd help you out with all your cell phone questions. Every Friday, we'll bring you questions from readers and answers from us. We know first hand how hard it can be to navigate cell phones, service plans and even proper phone etiquette. That's why we're giving you the opportunity to get your burning questions answered, by us, the experts. Check back Friday for the first installment and in the meantime, feel free to start submitting your questions here.

Topics:

Q&A

Now that you've gotten the pros and cons of WiFi-enabled cell phones, Dameon Welch-Abernathy (aka PhoneBoy) provides insight on services you can use with WiFi-enabled cell phones.

Let's face it, your mobile operator doesn't provide service everywhere. They may claim nationwide coverage, and for the most part, they may be right. However, there are always going to be dead spots. The thought of WiFi on your mobile handset might sound like a good thing. WiFi can often fill in some of those dead spots, for instance, inside your house. But it won't help you unless you use your mobile phone's data services extensively.

There is one exception to this rule. T-Mobile in the US offers their T-Mobile HotSpot @Home service which permits your mobile phone to use WiFi for making and receiving calls to your normal T-Mobile handset. T-Mobile uses a technology called UMA, short for unlicensed mobile access. This technology allows a mobile handset to seamlessly roam between a WiFi network and the standard mobile phone network.

However, this service will not allow you to use any old WiFi-enabled handset. Specific ones sold by T-Mobile can be used with this service--ones that contain the necessary UMA software. Other phones that are WiFi-enabled, such as many of Nokia's Nseries and Eseries devices, cannot utilize the UMA-specific features.

There are services that do permit you to call using the WiFi on your handset. The more well-known of these services, such as Gizmo Project, Truphone, and Fring, only run on high-end Nokia Nseries and Eseries handsets. These services do not offer seamless roaming between WiFi and the traditional mobile phone network, but they can be useful as a way to make cheap or even free calls from your mobile phone.

The biggest downside to WiFi on a mobile handset: the impact on battery life. Extensive use of WiFi on a mobile handset can cut the runtime of a mobile phone substantially. If the WiFi is only used occasionally, it will not be as big of an impact.

For most normal people who do not utilize the Internet from their mobile handset or don't use something like T-Mobil (Read more)

Topics:	Phone Smarts	Nokia	Symbian	Smart phones
	WiFi	T-Mobile

Ben Metcalfe points out some of the downsides to having a WiFi-enabled cell phone. WiFi in handsets provides an alternative way of accessing the internet from your device other than the data connection provided by your cell phone carrier. The headline advantages of this are that you avoid paying any data charges if you are on a metered data tariff (ie not an 'unlimited data' plan but one where you pay for the amount of data you consume). The other benefit is that in general the connection speeds via wifi are faster than via your cell phone data connection.

However, there are a number of disadvantages and issues that anyone looking to purchase a phone with a WiFi connection feature should be aware of:

Not ubqiutious. Perhaps the most obvious issue is that, unlike data via your carrier, WiFi us only available in smaller hotspots of limited range. Once you roam outside of that hotspot area, which might be as small as 20 meters or so, you will loose your connection. And if there are no hotspots around then you will have to use your carrier's data connection if you need to access the net.

Still potential cost. You should consider the amount of free wifi you encounter where you live and work (perhaps you already use free wifi on your laptop). The prevelence of such open connection varies across the world. Remember that many coffee shops such as Starbucks and hotel chains still charge for WiFi. In these instances it may or may not be more cost effective to use your carrier data connection istead. You should also consider that there maybe legal implications of accessing open wifi that isn't officially advertised for pubic use - in particular unconfigured home wifi routers, etc.

Ease of use. Most phones will automatically connect to their carrier's data network when needed. Smartphones may even work best when set to remain connected all the time. WiFi, on the other hand usually requires the user to manually connect to a desired basestation - adding additional steps and complexity to your phone's usage before you can access the internet on your phone.

Connection specific uses. Certain applications, such as mapping benefit from dynamic access as you move (be it on foot or in a car). As such these types of applications offer little benefit if accessed solely from a limited range wifi connection. Conversely, some applications - such as video led expeirences - benefit from the faster connections enjoyed by WiFi and may not work well when you connect via the carrier's data connection.

Security. Remember that all open wifi connections are prone to monitoring ('sniffing') by third parties - unless you encrypt the connection using SSH or a VPN service. This is possible to do on (Read more)

Topics:

In The Know

BlackBerry

Smart phones

WiFi

This is a great read, especially if you really wanted to know what all those technical terms mean in regards to WiFi. Check out what Derek Kerton has to say about WiFi.

What's so great about Wi-Fi...let me see. You know, I used to love Wi-Fi, and was an early booster back in 2000. That's back in the days when Wi-Fi was designed to successfully meet a market demand: a non-tethered Ethernet connection within a limited location using unlicensed wireless frequency.

This usage scenario led the way to Hotspots, for which technology is very well suited but the business models were ridiculously inadequate and too grandiose. Next up, the dreamers imagined Muni Wi-Fi killing off mobile telcos, and that idea was also ill-conceived. So it seems that lately, despite loving WiFi for what it was meant to be, I've been bashing WiFi for how people have misused it.

Strangely, one of the main things characteristics of WiFi that is often considered a negative, is actually a feature of the technology when the tech is used correctly: short range. The fact that WiFi is short-range is actually the only reason we can all use it in our homes and offices simultaneously. If it were wide-range, then we would be interfering with each other all over the place. WiFi uses something I like to call WDMA (Wall Division Multiple Access) which is a method of sharing the same bandwidth because a wall or two separates us and keeps your signals from interfering with mine. Thus, we can all set up cheap untethered Ethernet access in our homes and offices...as planned from the outset.

On the client side, over 300 Million WiFi client devices have now shipped, which is nothing compared to cell phones, but it is still a significant achievement, which has contributed greatly to the economy that improves the technology, provides scale economies, and offers an addressable customer base with pre-paid CPE.

Yet, as times have moved along, Wi-Fi is still best used in the context of private WLANs (Wireless Local Area Networks), and small Hotspots and a few HotZones. We're seeing a steady increase in Hotspot density despite the hype cycle of public Hotspots dying down, and even though "Muni WiFi" has over-promised and under-delivered, it IS increasing WiFi's footprint. Meanwhile, WiFi radios have decreased in power, size, and cost to the point that they can be fitted into handsets. These handsets can be either dedicated WiFi phones, Smartphone PDAs, or hybrid cellular/WiFi devices. The hybrid camp can be further split into those that are UMA enabled to pass calls off between WiFi and cellular, and those with silo-ed WiFi and cellular radios. I'll have to address each device type separately:

WiFi Only VoIP phones (Read more)

Topics:	In The Know	Windows Mobile	Symbian	International
	Business Use	WiFi

T-Mobile has announced availability of the Motorola Razr 2 V8. The cell phone sports a 2MP camera, comes preloaded with three songs “Pace is the Trick” by Interpol, “False Pretense” by the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and “Island” by The Starting Line, a whopping 2GBs of internal memory (that's enough for about 49 albums if all you store is music) and has a spacious internal screen and external touch-sensitive display.

I've been playing with a Razr 2, the V9 series found on CDMA carriers and I gotta say, it's pretty slick and awfully attractive. That touch-screen on the lower half of the display is not nearly as sensitive as I thought it would be, so there's no fear of accidentally launching apps when its floating around in a purse or settled snugly in a pocket.

If you want to know the difference between the Razr2 V8 and the other Razr's available from T-Mobile, check out this handy chart. I know, you really want to see what the V8 looks like, so check out the pictures below.

Topics:	In The Know	Motorola	Music	Camera
	T-Mobile	Bluetooth

What is it? Sony Ericsson W580i (Available in white, carbon grey, and just released black) music phone. This Sony Ericsson is just fun to use with its unique "Shake to Shuffle" feature that allows you to skip forward to the next song on the shuffle list by just flicking your wrist (with the phone in your hand of course).

How much? It's Free without a rebate, and now includes a free Sony Ericsson HBH-608 Akono Bluetooth Headset. Plus you get $50 back in a rebate if you buy any messaging/data package of $14.99/month or more.

Why is it such a good deal? Quite simply, the W580i is moving fast and we want to keep it up. We have a bunch of those Sony Ericsson Bluetooth headsets in the warehouse, so why not pair them up?

Sony Ericsson W580i

What is it? Motorola S9 stereo Bluetooth headset

How much?$99.99 or for $40 bucks more you can get the version that comes with an iPod adapter, which lets you listen to music on an iPod and still get calls from your Bluetooth enabled cell phone. If a call comes in, the ipod will automatically pause and the phone will ring in your ear. You can then take the call by just hitting a button on the side of the headphones (or let in go to voicemail.) When you're done, the ipod will resume play automatically.

Why is it such a good deal? Bluetooth stereo headsets range in price from $40 to as much as $200. The benefit of the Motorola S9, especially paired with the iPod adapter, is that you never have to miss a call when listening to the iPod. It’s a great way to get one pair of quality stereo headphones without that you can use with multiple devices. Plus the S9s are fairly sporty, so you’ll look cool too.

Motorola S9 with iPod adapter

Topics:	In The Know	Motorola	Music	AT&T Wireless
	Sony Ericsson	Bluetooth	Accessories	Deal of the Week

We asked Bloggers around the Internet for their take on WiFi-enabled cell phones. We got a lot of feed back pointing out pros/cons and even some cool stuff you can do if you have a WiFi-enabled cell phone, which we'll be posting throughout the week. Here’s a great overview of the situation from Joseph Hunkins at Joe Duck to get the topic started this week:

I'd like to take a contrarian view here suggesting that Wi-Fi functionality does NOT offer much for users, and in most cases can/should be left off of phone offerings - even for advanced users. A big exception covering a small number of users would be those who place a lot of international calls from home and thus could avoid high cell charges in that fashion. Here's my reasoning as we address each of the key points:

1) Wi-Fi offers faster data speeds than cellular networks. This is generally true and would be an asset if Wi-Fi had more functional implementation and access standards and users had the patience and temperament to configure the handset as needed. However, in many cases, trying to connect in this fashion rather than simply using the normal signal will be more than the user wants to do. Also, advanced users will increasingly have high-speed data via the normal cell signal, making the occasional switch to Wi-Fi simply an inconvenience.

2) Use of free HotSpots instead of paying their operator for data service. Data services are generally "all you can eat" or cheap and are getting cheaper. Only a user who regularly visits the same Wi-Fi location and stays there a long time would generally reap much benefit from this.

3) Is Wi-Fi something consumers should be seeking in their next handset? No, with some exceptions for certain users in certain areas.

4) Is Wi-Fi a useful feature for non-techie, non-enterprise, "normal" users? Generally no for reasons stated above - non-techies won't happily go through *any* configuration steps to access hot spot Wi-Fi. Seamless Wi-Fi integration is not technically feasible at this time.

5) What are the benefits and drawbacks? Slight monetary benefit and in some cases strong bandwidth benefit, but on balance Wi-Fi enabled devices will require more tech configuration and higher costs. Only, if the Wi-Fi could be totally and seamlessly integrated with the device would the benefits likely outweigh the relatively modest advantages.

6) What are Wi-Fi enabled handsets. In simple terms, a Wi-Fi enabled handset allows the user to connect to data and voice services using a wireless internet signal - usually from an Internet 'HotSpot' connected to a local or national Internet service provider, rather than using the normal cellular network provided by major cell phone companies (Read more)

Topics:

Observed

Cell phone plans

Business Use

WiFi

Moving forward with our promise to unveil new blog features, this week we're launching the Deal of the Week. There are tons of great deals on LetsTalk.com that aren't always highlighted on the site. For example, I was perusing expandable memory cards in the Accessories section the other day and found a 512MB card for under 10 bucks. Now, that's a great deal that you might not find unless you're looking for memory cards.

In that vein, I asked our Director of Merchandising (and a total cell phone junkie), Harrison Lynch, to create a Deal of the Week that will be posted in the In The Know section every Tuesday. He's also promised to let us know what makes it such a great deal. So, check back tomorrow for our first Deal of the Week. Here's a hint: It will be music to your ears.

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

Cell phone plans

Accessories

I recently did a few radio interviews talking about cell phone driving laws and the bottom line is that bans not only vary by state, but can also vary by jurisdiction. So if you drive and want to talk on the phone, you should know the laws. But more importantly, when you drive; driving should be where you focus your attention first and foremost. I know, maybe you don't like the headsets or they don't fit in your ear comfortably, which is why I'm writing about Bluetooth for your car.

There are products that you can use that don't have to go in your ear and there are some that even let you listen to the music saved on your phone through a car stereo and even take/place calls. If you're interested in this functionality check out the Motorola T605 or the Nokia Multimedia Car Kit CK-20W. Say, you don't want the music but want a speakerphone-like device in the car to take your calls. That's available too, from a couple of companies, check out the Jabra SP500, Nokia HF-33W, or the Motorola T305. And, as the Captain would say on CHiPs, "Be Safe Out There."

Topics:	Somethin' To Talk About	Motorola	Music	Driving laws
	Bluetooth

I just spotted this super cool application being used by BlackBerry users over at Switched, which provides updates on your public transportation commute to work. The service called, Clever Commute is a service you sign up for where you can see info on various commuting options (currently only available for New York and Chicago). The info provided by the service comes from other commuters and you, of course. Since you sign up using your e-mail address it's easy to identify when someone's posting mis-info on the site, so you know, be courteous. It's essentially a forum for reporting and finding out about commuter delays. At the very least, it's worth a try. What else are you going to do while waiting for a train or a bus?

Topics:	Phone Smarts	Verizon Wireless	AT&T Wireless	Sprint
	BlackBerry	Smart phones	T-Mobile

We were intrigued by this RSS reader because it really seems to do a lot and if you rely heavily on your reader to keep you informed with up-to-the-minute updates, check out what Karl Gechlik has to say about Egress.

This post should start by informing you that, I, Karl L. Gechlik, consider myself an RSS addict. I need my information and it doesn't matter if I am mobile or in front of a computer... I need to be connected. I have been using RSS on my mobile phone for along time now. It seems like I have tried every different mobile RSS reader out there. They all claim to be the best of the best and of course better than the competition. After many trials and tribulations I have narrowed this list down to one application that seems to work on all mobile platforms. I don't know about you but most of my friends use it as well. Is this because I push the product? No they see me using it and ask me about it. I haven't had anyone that inquired not wind up using it. There are a few different versions that cover ALL the mobile platforms.

The first application is Egress, this is a small lightweight application that does almost everything i want it to do. Egress allows for import and export of an OPML file, image and pod cast downloading, clipping articles and so much more. The best part of all is the feed actually looks like it is supposed to look - SCORE! I have my Egress set to sync up every 2 hours and whenever i connect it to my desktop. It has been a long time since i got stuck with out any thing to read on the train! Egress devours RSS and Atom feeds leaving no feed left behind. I can use the jogger on my Windows Mobile device to hit up those feeds one handed and share articles with my friends while on the run.

The BIGGEST problems I had with other applications was their ability to freeze up my device. Now that is the one thing I can not tolerate - when an application makes my phone unusable. So feel safe in the fact that i have not had Egress crash on me once. Don't get me wrong every now an again it will choke on a feed but, Egress skips the feed after a default time out and moves on.

This application costs $13.00 and has a free trial that will get you hooked! It was written by Garish Kernels who provides his own customer service - and is wonderful!

We’ll have insight on WiFi services/apps for your cell phone next week. If you want to see more from Karl Gechlik, check out his Ask The Admin site.

Topics:

Phone Smarts

Windows Mobile

Smart phones

WiFi

We asked Bloggers around the Internet to tell us about their favorite mobile RSS readers. We learned about some interesting Mobile readers out there such as Feedlion, which is a free tool for Java-based cell phones (so, it’s probably not going to work on Verizon Wireless cell phones – they use Brew). Here’s one from Jim Hughes at Feet Up! you might know about for the desktop, but it’s also just as easy to use on the cell phone:

I'm a big user of Bloglines mobile, in fact it's probably my primary feed reader. I read around 400 feeds, and do this on the train whilst commuting to and from work (a journey time of 2-3 hours a day). Why do I use a server hosted aggregator rather than one on the phone? Many reasons, here are the main ones:

1. Performance - Sucking down a whole feed to see if there are any new items is time and bandwidth consuming even with a good 3G signal, plus it needs a lot of storage on the phone to maintain state.

2. Cost - Bandwidth costs for 3G data are still not negligible in the UK, flat rate data is available, but it's limited by various restrictions, and the same is true in many other countries. So bandwidth costs money.

3. Device independence - Whilst my primary reading is done on the phone, there's still the ability to also read my feeds from a web browser on a "full sized" computer without having to read the same items again. I.e. the state of what I've read and what I haven't read is not kept on the phone.

I've used a number of mobile aggregators, primarily on S60 devices, and apart from specialized niches like podcasts, the disadvantages far outweigh the benefits described above.

We’ll have insight on another RSS reader for your cell phone tomorrow from another blogger, who seems to know an awful lot about getting the most out of your phone. If you want to see more from Jim Hughes, check out his Feet Up site.

Topics:

Phone Smarts

Symbian

Smart phones

In the coming weeks, you’ll see some changes here at the PhoneTalk blog. In fact, you may have already noticed some subtle changes already, such as the inclusion of Tags so you can easily find posts on a specific topic. We’ve also made it easier for you to add the PhoneTalk feed to your own RSS reader (see the lower right hand column if you haven’t seen this yet). Speaking of RSS readers, we thought we’d kick off our next enhancement with a look at mobile RSS readers. That’s right; there’ll be new content weekly from bloggers around the Internet with a passion for everything mobile on anything from cool cell phone apps to insight on issues that affect the way you use your phone. Now, we’re not going to let you know about all of the new changes coming this month, you’ll just need to check back weekly, but we’re sure you’ll find something you like.

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

If you're getting ready to get a new Verizon cell phone, you'll want to see this: the new models coming out in the next two months. Yep, you guessed it, just in time for the holidays. Though pricing hasn't been announced on any of these cell phones yet, one of each will probably hit at the typical price points. To make remembering the models easier for you they all have their own names (that's right, no confusing model numbers to remember). Here's what you can expect (and this is in order of when they'll become available):

• The Juke. While it looks an awful lot like another Samsung (the SGH-X830), rest assured it's not. This is an exclusive Verizon model. It will come in three colors: Navy, red, and teal (I've already requested pink) and it's big purpose is to double-duty as an MP3 player (it will play Windows WMA and unprotected AAC files). It's got 2GB of memory (enough for about 500 songs), but you can't add more. It also sports a 2MP camera and is clearly geared for the teens as it also has Verizon's Chaperone service which lets parents help keep track of the kids. Only thing it doesn't have is support for the super high-speed EVDO network, which isn't a big deal since you won't be downloading music over-the-air or spend much time surfing the Web.

• The BlackBerry Pearl. Yep, it's basically the Pearl but for Verizon and the first Pearl to support the super-speedy EVDO network. It's got the same version of the BlackBerry OS as the company's 8830. Unlike T-Mobile's colorful offering, the Verizon Pearl will only be available in silver.

• The Venus. Ok, if you were thinking of getting the Razr (Read more)

  Topics:	In The Know	Verizon Wireless	Music	Text messaging
  	Samsung	BlackBerry	Camera	Smart phones
  	LG	Business Use	Video	GPS

Starting Sunday, October 7, 2007 you can now change your Verizon Wireless plan without having to extend your contract. That's right, you (regardless if you're a new or existing customer) can change your voice or data plan without extending your existing contract. That's pretty exciting news considering when you would usually call up to change your voice or data plans your contract would get extended. It seems like the only time you'll need to extend your contract now is when you apply for your "New Every Two" (that's a new cell phone free or discounted when you hit the two year period of service - note: you do need to have a certain plan minimum to qualify).

Topics:

In The Know

Verizon Wireless

Cell phone plans

If you've got a MySpace account and a cell phone and a data plan you can check your account from anywhere you have service. The mobile version of MySpace is in beta version. We checked it out on a Motorola Razr2 and it's got the basics covered - viewing friends (with small version of their pics), editing your account, checking the inbox (even saved messages), and searching for other users. So, what's missing? All the flash of an actual MySpace page and rightfully so... even with today's much faster wireless networks that would still slow things down dramatically. Why don't you check it out for yourself and let us know what you think; just open a new URL on your cell phone and go to http://mobile.myspace.com.

Topics:

Phone Smarts

Motorola

E-mail

I came across this article in the St. Charles Journal about a guy who lost his cell phone. Of course, he is not the only person who has had this experience; our own Dave Frame has lost a phone or two in his day. I thought about a product that may not help prevent you from losing your cell phone, but it can help you get it back. It's called, simply, YouGetItBack. For about $10 you get a sticker to put on your cell phone, you activate the sticker at the company's website. If the phone is lost and then found by a good Samaritan they can contact the site, which will contact you and voila - your cell phone is back.

Topics:

Phone Smarts

In short, Sling Media's SlingPlayer for Mobile is going to be included on the HSDPA US version of the Nokia N95. Why is this a good thing? Well, first of all the ability to watch any TV from home on the go is simply pretty cool. How many times have you been stuck in the airport subjected to the news playing on all the terminal TVs? Plus, the Nokia N95's screen can be viewed horizontally or vertically. While it doesn't sport the largest display it is pretty sharp and easy to view in most lighting situations. Finally, the N95 sports HSDPA, which basically means watching streaming video over the HSDPA network is one of the more fluid experiences you can get these days on a cell phone. Plus, you can still watch stuff using the WiFi connection.

Don't worry if you already have the N95, you can still download the software free to your cell phone. We should mention that if you don't already have a Slingbox, you'll need to get one.

Topics:	In The Know	Nokia	Symbian	Smart phones
	Video

I'm back from Argentina and while the country is known for its amazing meat and all around delicious food (the ice cream, a.k.a. helado, shouldn't be missed) it's a place where people love their cell phones. And rightfully so, they definitely have some mighty cool phones. Let's just put it this way all those phones I routinely see at trade shows like CTIA and CES that I wonder if they'll make it here seem to be there quite popular there.

That said, trying to get a phone to work down there was a bit of a challenge. In short, if I really wanted to get email down there on the BlackBerry 8830 the easiest course of action would have been to upgrade the data service plan before I left. It turns out prepaid works a little differently there. You get a phone from and SIM card from one of the carriers (typically Movistar or Personal) and then you can purchase cards (in the form of a business card) with a code and activate the added amount from the cell phone directly.

All was not lost on me, however, I did bring a backup: the Nokia N95. WiFi is rampant down there - available at most cafes. I was easily able to have a cafe con leche and check email or surf the Web using the Nokia N95. I could have potentially been able to place calls to using the WiFi connection, however, I didn't have the foresight to set it up before I left and couldn't test this feature. Plus, it didn't hurt that the N95 has a pretty good 5MP digital camera. You can see for yourself below.

Topics:	In The Know	Nokia	Sprint	BlackBerry
	Symbian	Camera	International

I'm off to South America and taking a couple of cell phones with me to see just how well they work internationally. I'll be bringing along Sprint's BlackBerry 8830 and the Nokia N95. Now, I've already reviewed the 8830 and if I wanted to still be able to use my U.S. phone number and send/receive email via the BlackBerry I could if I change my data plan to $69.99 international version and use the SIM card included in the box, but I found that you can get prepaid cards with data and voice in South America and I want to see how that will work. I'm taking the N95 because that phone has WiFi, so as long as I get a WiFi connection in South America I should be able to at least surf the web. It also has a 5MP camera so it can do double duty as my digital camera for the trip and hey, I can even send photos back to friends and family directly from the cell phone.

Check back next week to see how well the two cell phones did internationally.

Topics:	Phone Smarts	Nokia	Sprint	BlackBerry
	Symbian	Camera	Smart phones

I've blogged about this topic before, but I can't help revisit the topic whenever new information surfaces. In this case, the additional information comes from a Science Daily article of a study done by Alliant International University. The phenomenon is even given a name, "ringxiety." A recent study shows that you're more likely to suffer from ringxiety if you use a cell phone a lot. Additionally (and, no surprise here), 67% of those surveyed "had higher monthly charges, used more minutes, sent more text messages, and showed higher levels of impulsivity."

But this is my favorite part of the survey results:

"The study also shows that some people rely on their mobile phone to regulate moods and maintain social connectedness. Those people who prefer to use their phones for text messaging, rather than talking, evidence higher levels of loneliness, social anxiety, and problem phone use."

Why is that my favorite part of the study? I have friends on both sides of the spectrum - some say text messaging is a cop out for having a real conversation and others who say texting keeps them more connected. I'm sure there's a happy medium in there somewhere. Texting is ideal for anything quick: confirming plans, silly, fun comments, just to say 'hey,' checking availability status, etc. On the other hand, you probably shouldn't be relying on texts for in depth serious conversations. There really is something to be said for actually talking, with texting sometimes things can get lost in translation.

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

Etiquette

Text messaging

That's the day the cell phone laws go into effect in the state of California. Yep, that's right, the law that states teens can't use any electronic device while driving and all other drivers in the state will need to rely on hands-free communication to use their cell phones starts. I can just see it now, parents will have a whole new reason to say, "Because I'm the parent, that's why" when new drivers ask why they can't use a similar headset while driving.

Topics:

In The Know

Parents

Driving laws

People don't typically get excited or particularly interested in storage formats and it's usually because if you're thinking of storage that usually leads you to thinking about losing data, songs, pictures or any other pertinent information you're storing. What does this have to do with cell phones? Well, apparently there's another external storage format in the works. According to this SF Gate article, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and others are teaming up to create a "universal storage format." While in theory, it's a good idea to have one storage format, I'm not sure it will ever come to pass and if it does what happens to "legacy" storage formats and the devices that support them?

Right now, cell phones have it pretty good, most of them use MicroSD cards that are pretty interchangeable between cell phones, however, you might need to reformat the card depending on the different phones you use with it. But still, that's pretty good. A few use MiniSD cards, which can be a little bigger and then of course, there are the Sony Ericsson cell phones that use a mobile version of the Memory Stick. We won't have to worry about the new storage format until 2009, but for it truly to be "universal" a lot of companies have to all be on board. My question is if they really wanted a storage format that fits all cell phones (let alone all mobile devices, while nice, is a little ambitious) why doesn't everyone just get on the MicroSD format bus?

MicroSD card

MiniSD card

Memory Stick Micro

Topics:	Somethin' To Talk About	Nokia	Music	Storage
	Sony Ericsson	Samsung

There's been much made of teens and cell phones. As many of us know, a teen's biggest cell phone addiction isn't talking, it's texting and I'm betting soon IMing on cell phones will be just as addictive for them. According to this article in USA Today, About 15 states and the District of Columbia have passed bills banning electronic equipment while driving. Currently, California and 11 other states are considering similar bans. In California the cost for violators will be $20 first offense and $50 for the second.

It's true that teens are new drivers and should keep their hands on the wheel (not the keypad) and their eyes on the road (not their cell phone's screen). But what about all drivers? Should any of us be texting and driving? Even if we're stopped at a light or stuck in traffic? Sure we can all hide it under the steering wheel or on the passenger seat, but should we be doing it at all? I don't think it's a good idea to be texting while driving period. Just like the seat-belt law enforcement of the late 80s/early 90s, where we had to buckle-up or get a ticket, I suspect no texting while driving law enforcement will follow a similar path. But $20 for the ticket? I doubt that's going to be much of a deterrent. What do you think?

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

Text messaging

Parents

Driving laws

Have dreams of being involved in the Olympics? According to this post from Crave, you've got just one day left to let Samsung Electronics know why you are someone you know is a good cell phone Samaritan and should be given the honor to help carry the Olympic torch when it passes through San Francisco, CA on April 9, 2008. You can find out more about the contest here. You better hurry, applications need to be submitted by Wednesday, September 12, 2007.

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

Some people like to read books on their cell phones - thus the eReader. Others, however, have a passion for comics. Want to check out your favorite comic book on your cell phone? If you have Verizon Wireless, Sprint or AT&T, now you can. According to this AP article, "For $4.49 a month on Verizon, or $3.99 a month for AT&T and Sprint, subscribers can view nearly a dozen different traditional comic books. There's also a separate subscription service for Japanese comics called manga."

If you want to get the feel for creating your own comic, you can do that too via Verizon Wireless' Create your own Comic. The company that provides the software has recently added a few more scenes and characters to the program.

Topics:

Phone Smarts

Verizon Wireless

AT&T Wireless

Sprint

Needless to say, cell phones and kids have been a hot topic. Discussions have ranged from everything from phones in schools, to teens driving and texting, and even at what age should kids get cell phones. So it's no surprise that AT&T has a new service for family plan customers. It's called Smart Limits and costs an extra $4.99 a month per subscriber. The idea is that you can set limits on how much kids use the phone as well as which features they use and, of course, have more manageable bills.

It's true, cell phones have been a great way for parents to keep track of their kids. I'm sure in some ways it has helped parents and kids open up some lines of communications while altering others. Every family is different. While the cell phone has help changed the way and the frequency in which we communicate, the cell phone bill and who pays it is just as interesting commentary on society. For example, in a recent LetsTalk.com survey cell phone owners were asked who do you think should pay a child's cell phone bill. The response: 54% of those surveyed think kids should pay their own phone bill. Additionally, in the same survey parents were asked who is actually paying a kid's cell phone bill; and the answer is a whopping 73% of parents are picking up the bill.

So, yes, on the one hand its a great way to keep bills manageable by monitoring and limiting cell phone usage with AT&T's latest add-on feature, but I wonder if there's not another option especially for kids heading off to college, who will (at least, in theory) have to learn about budgeting. If their cell phone is being monitored for them so the bills don't run up too high for the parents, how will they learn to track the minutes on their phones or be mindful of how many texts and IMs are being sent and received from their cell phone? I remember a while back Sprint offered an "allowance" plan, which basically put the responsibility on kids. If their minutes or messages ran out before the end of the month, the child could add more money to the account to keep the phone going until the end of the month. While these options are great, the real issue is how will kids learn to monitor and become mindful of their own cell phone habits?

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

AT&T Wireless

Parents

Cell phone plans

Can't decide between the beach or the pool? Let your cell phone help you make the decision. There's a new text messaging service for California beach goers that informs users of a beach's water quality provided by Heal the Bay. All you need to do is send a text to 23907 with the dedicated SMS keyword for a specific beach. You'll receive back the beach's report card. The service is currently only available for Los Angeles County, but more beach report cards for the state of California will be available by the end of the year.

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

Text messaging

As schools start opening their doors across the country this week and next; and as more kids are getting cell phones, it seems like the perfect time to make sure you've got the best plan for you and your family. Here are five quick tips to guide you through the maze of plan options for a family:

1. It’s all in the family. There are many family plan options available from carriers. These plans allow you to buy a large bucket of minutes and share them among family members. Additionally, calls to family members in the plan are not deducted from overall minutes, so even if you use all the minutes in your plan you can still call and sometimes text family members for free. If you select a plan like this make sure you get enough minutes and text messages to accommodate all your family members. Once all the minutes are used in a month, you’ll start accruing overage fees, which can be pricey.

2. Don’t forget a text message plan. If you purchase a family plan that doesn’t include text messaging, consider adding on a separate text plan for your child. Kids are avid texters. Often you can get a plan that will allow free sent/received text messages to cell phones that use the same carrier. Additionally, if a cell phone has an IM client on it those messages are billed as a text message. That can add up pretty quickly in just one IM chat.

3. Consider becoming a one carrier family. If you don’t want to commit to a family plan, maybe you think your child will use all the minutes, you can still reap some of the benefits of a family plan if you all use the same carrier. Many plans available from the carriers allow free calls and text messages between people on their network. Be sure to ask about this feature when you sign up for service. It usually doesn’t cost more and if it does, it’s well worth it if most of the people you call use the same carrier.

4. Be selective. Even if you’re already a year settled into your two-year contract and your child ends up with a different carrier than you, you can still reap the rewards of being with the same carrier or getting a family plan. There are plans available that allow you to choose a select number of people who you can call regardless of their carrier that will not be counted against your overall plan. You might have first seen this in the form of MyFaves on T-Mobile. Other carriers have created similar plans; however, these plans typically don’t include free texting to the designated group of family and friends.

5. Prepaid plans can keep bills manageable. It’s true, prepaid plans tend to have a slightly higher cost per minute than other types of plans. But the benefits are that once the minutes are used, the cell phone (Read more)

Topics:

In The Know

Yahoo! has added a new functionality to its web-based e-mail that speaks directly to cell phone behavior: The ability to send a text message to a phone from from your Yahoo! e-mail account. According to this article, it's free (as it should be, considering Yahoo's e-mail service is free), however, it's not necessarily free to the person receiving the text message. While it's probably likely that the person you're sending a text message to is someone you text frequently and they probably have a robust text messaging plan, it never hurts to double check with the recipient as the cost of receiving texts can add up quickly if they don't have a plan.

While this is an interesting added functionality for Yahoo! mail subscribers, I'd like to note that sending a text message to a cell phone from a computer is not a new idea. You can already send text messages to cell phone from corresponding carrier sites. So if this feature really intrigues you and you don't have Yahoo! mail you don't need to go create a new account and add to the dizzying amount of e-mail addresses you already have.

Topics:

In The Know

There's been a lot of excitement circulating about the Razr 2 and which carrier is going to have it first. For all those who would rather have the latest Motorola smartphone, you'll be happy to hear the Motorola Q music 9m will be available for Verizon Wireless customers at month's end.

What's so great about the new Q? Well if the word "music" in its name is any harbinger of things to come, let's start with the amount of external memory this smartphone is capable of supporting; Try, up to a 32GB microSD card. Can you say future-proof? Last I checked, there are only 4GB microSD cards currently available. Additionally, the other nice upgrade to the phone is the ability of two switch between two home screens: the traditional Windows Mobile screen and a Multimedia centric version as well. Of course, in this version you get Windows Mobile 6 instead of 5. Now for the cosmetic changes: it sports a new QWERTY keyboard that's arguably more tactile and race-car red highlights.

Topics:

In The Know

Motorola

Verizon Wireless

Music

Cell phone restrictions aren't just limited to elementary, junior high, and high school students. Miami college football coach, Randy Shannon, has an idea or two about cell phone etiquette. Shannon is definitely shaking things up and a lot of it has to do with limiting player distractions and focusing on working as a team. Here's his quote on the subject from this SportsLine article:

"Cell phones in class? Forget it. If a football player's cellie rings, all the players in that class turn in their phones to the coach. Names have been removed from the backs of jerseys. A 2.5 GPA must be maintained. Doors are held open for women."

What do you think about Shannon's cell phone rule? Will it help create a better college football team?

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

Etiquette

Sports

If you've been a long time fan of taking an audio tour while at a museum, but not a fan of the audio headset you have to use consider instead something you likely already have with you: a cell phone. Yep, that's right. According to this Baltimore Sun article, in some museums across the country, you can use your cell phone to listen to a guided tour. You may even be able to leave messages for the commentator. Though specifics on how it all works or how much it costs is a little vague, it appears that it's just a call you make and the only cost is your minutes. Not a bad way to use a phone in a museum, without disturbing the other patrons. For some reason using your own cell phone seems a little more personal than the traditional audio headset.

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

For some, the hardest part about picking the right plan can be choosing which add-ons you'll need. There are so many additional options to consider: text messaging, data, picture messaging, web-based e-mail, web access, etc. The list can go on and on. Verizon Wireless has taken steps to make it a little bit easier and this is definitely a good thing. Now they're offering customers Mobile Web 2.0 for about $5 a month, plus airtime. Use it to check web-based e-mail, view online content, search for other information from your cell phone and a few other things. You'll still need a separate messaging plan for texts, but $5 a month for the other access is a pretty good deal - especially if you find yourself at the end of the month with a bunch of spare minutes.

Topics:

In The Know

We had a blog post awhile back about a way to use your cell phone to access a bike in England. Now, let's say you got on that bike, where would you put your cell phone? In a pocket maybe or even in a bag that you might have that can be strewn across your back? All options, but if you want to deck out your bike with cell phone accessories the way some people deck out their cars, consider getting something I spotted on Crave:a Bicycle Phone Holder for $10. Yes, you heard correctly. This nifty gadget will attach to your bike and you can secure your cell phone in it. Now, my question is of course, should you really be having a conversation while on a cell phone while you're riding a bike?

Topics:

Observed

There are so many versions of the Razr that it's getting hard to keep track. The latest version is the Razr 2, which will be available this month according to this post from Yahoo! Tech, and it has a lot going for it. First, it definitely has received a bit of a face-lift. In the past its been a little difficult to tell Razrs apart from one another - the V3 and V3i and V3m - all look eerily familiar. This won't be an issue with the Razr 2 - it's exterior has a big display and it actually looks bigger than your typical Razr. That said it's definitely a good looking cell phone. Second, it doesn't only support up to a 2GB MicroSD card, it's already got 512MB on board (depending on which version you get) - not too shabby. You should be able to add plenty of pictures, video and tunes to this cell phone, without needing an extra MicroSD card. Will this Razr be a headturner? You betcha and you'll be able to do a lot more with it than you've come to expect from existing models in the Razr family.

Topics:

In The Know

Motorola

It's something we shouldn't do, but apparently according to a survey from Harris Interactive and Pinger, it's something lots of us do and not just the young new drivers hitting the road. Here's a quick break down of some of the survey results from an article on MSNBC:

• 66% of the adults surveyed who drive and use text messaging have read text messages or e-mails while driving; 64% of those who admitted to sending text messages while driving were aged 18 to 34
• 57% admitted to sending messages
• 89% of respondents believe texting while driving is dangerous and should be outlawed

So, how about you - do you text, email, or even IM, while you drive?

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

I'm a huge fan of hitting the open road. I do it every chance I get and with cell phones having more and more features, it's no wonder they'll likely play a bigger part of the adventure. Typically, you might think you'd just use the cell phone to help whisk away hours on the road by chatting with a friend - using a headset (of course!) and you might even take a picture or two with that included camera. But Motorola and Nokia both think you can do more with that cell phone of yours.

Motorola has launched a site dedicated to making the most of your cell phone while you're on the road. It's a pretty nifty site, providing all sorts of information you might need. Motorola users can also create an account and upload photos and videos taken with their cell phones. You know, so they can share their trip with friends, family and the rest of the Motorola phone user community. The site is packed with other useful features, such as facts about specific destinations and how to make the most of some of your phone's features.

Nokia, on the other hand, took a different approach. Remember, Nokia has the Lifeblog software so you can already share info captured on your phone with friends and family easily enough. Instead, Nokia equipped Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman with Nokia 6110's for their Long Way Down journey (see photo below). The 15,000-mile trip, which took them from Scotland to Cape Town, South Africa on a pair of decked out BMW motorcycles, ended this past weekend and lasted just about three months. Besides using the cell phone to keep in touch with friends and family, the duo used their Nokia cell phones to find locations on their journey and to let the crew following behind them know their location via their cell phones. There's a video on Nokia's site featuring McGregor and Boorman, but it's not terribly exciting. I think I might just check out the footage on the BBC's site.

As for me, I still like taking a cell phone with me when I hit the road and really only use it when I get lost, which is, well,...a lot. I like getting lost actually, since road trips are about the journey, not the destination.

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

One of the few items that aren't included in minute plans are calls to information. I just learned about a couple of free 411 services and decided to try them out.

First off is 800-GOOG-411, for all you folks who don't like to spell things out on a numeric keypad, the digits are: 800-466-4411. This service is voice automated and is probably best if you know exactly what you want or an address. I don't know about you, but when I call information it's usually to get an address. So in this area the service fell a little short. Also, you'll be prompted through a bunch of options, which really takes up a lot of time. If you have the patience or know a decent amount of information about the number you want, give this service a try.

The next service is 800-FREE-411. Again, if you don't want to spell it out, here's the numeric translation: 800-373-3411. So you know the old question about great deals, "Is it too good to be true?" In short, yes and no. The free service seems to be sponsored by advertisers. You don't really get to the advertiser's information until after your request is complete and you're waiting for the number. This service seemed easier to use through the phone prompts and if that doesn't work, the option to speak to someone isn't too buried in the voice memos. I was able to get the number I wanted once I spoke with the 411 operator and I was even prompted to receive the number as a text message. It's been about 5 minutes and I still haven't gotten the text, but I was still connected to my number.

If either of these services work for you, create a 411 contact number in your cell phone's phonebook and program in one of these numbers. Really, all you need is a little patience and the desire to save some coin.

Topics:

Phone Smarts

There must be something in the air this week: there were two new music services announced. First, there was a new service from Buzzwire, which allows you to organize media on your computer and stream it over your cell phone. You can also just listen to podcasts and news streams directly from your cell phone once you set up an account. There's a good description of how it works at Listening Post and the kind of content you can expect to find with the service. It doesn't work on all cell phones at this point and though the service is free to use, you still need a data plan to access it on your cell phone.

The other announcement comes from AT&T and eMusic. According to this post from Crave, the two companies have teamed up to offer downloadable music over select AT&T cell phones. eMusic is really known for it's list of indie music and the ability to download DRM-free music (that means you should be able to listen to downloaded tunes on any device so long as it supports the music's file format). Again, you need a data plan to access music from your cell phone so you'll be paying for more than just the song.

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Somethin' To Talk About

According to this Information Week article, mobile e-mail use is on the rise. The article discusses a recent survey from AOL, which states "e-mail use on mobile devices has nearly doubled since 2004." That's not too surprising considering it's a lot easier to check e-mail on a cell phone and with the higher speed networks available it doesn't take all that long.

I, for one, have been checking my web-based e-mail on my cell phone for years. At first, it started because I wanted to see if I could. Then there were times that I needed some information, such as directions or an address, saved in my e-mail, but I had no computer access so I used my cell phone. Now, I do it probably mostly because I can. If you don't think you can check web-based e-mail on your phone, think again because you probably can. You don't need a smart phone or some special feature integrated into a cell phone, you really just need a data plan.

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Somethin' To Talk About

Cell phone stories come from the most unexpected places. Take this piece on Page Six of the New York Post about why Luke Wilson had to change his cell phone number. According to the article, Johnny Knoxville hired a plane with a banner of Wilson's cell phone number to fly by a party he was going to attend. Apparently, Wilson quickly changed his number. I wonder who will get Wilson's old number and the calls they might get from long lost Wilson contacts who haven't heard the news or received the new number.

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Somethin' To Talk About

There was an interesting study done by Reader's Digest on how likely people are to return cell phones found in various cities around the world. Though people in different cities were more conscientious than others, overall 68% of the phones were returned. For example, Hong Kong didn't fare so well where only 13 of 30 cell phones were returned, while New York came in 5th overall.

Although people weren't necessarily forced to look through a cell phone's address book to return the phone (according to the article, the phone tended to be ringing when the it was found) it's still nice to know that people are so scrupulous, but not surprising. My friend had lost her cell phone in a cab recently and we called it to try and locate it. Unfortunately, the number we were calling from wasn't set on such a loud ringtone, so we took a different tactic and called from a phone that had a much louder ringtone associated with that number on her mobile. Sure enough, the phone finder heard the ring, answered the call and returned the cell phone.

A handy tip in case this happens to you is to program an "If lost, please return" number in your cell phone's address book and program your landline number (if you still have one) or someone who you talk to frequently and assign the loudest ringtone to that contact. Also, make sure your battery is typically sufficiently charged - once it's out of juice you might be out of luck.

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Somethin' To Talk About

Amp'd Mobile users will have a few more days of service. According to this post at Yahoo Tech subscribers will have until the end of the month to get new service.

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In The Know

It looks like MVNO, Amp'd Mobile, is closing. The company has created this Q&A page for existing customers with service. As we learn more about what Amp'd mobile customers can do with their existing cell phones and service we'll be sure to provide an update.

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In The Know

Samsung announced a special edition cell phone for the Olympics. Keeping with one of the Olympic themes, the Samsung P318 is plated in 18K gold. That's about it for the details of this shiny new phone. However, we should note, the Olympic-inspired cell phone looks an awful lot like the company's SGH-P310.

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In The Know

I came across this story cell phone data vulnerability(and other portable devices - ie laptops,etc.) if the the device is lost or stolen. Of course, I'm intrigued; it's sort of obvious, but not something you think about or take precautions to keep safe. Ask yourself: If you lost your cell phone what would you really be losing? Are any of the phone numbers you have stored in your contact book a bit confidential or maybe you have pictures that you wouldn't share with everyone? Remember Paris Hilton's Sidekick debacle?

The article I read delves a little deeper into potentially risky data. For example, it mentions bank account information if you check your bank statements on your cell phone. For that matter, what about e-mail? It also mentions the Bluetooth not being all that safe. If these thoughts keep you up at night, no worries, I'm a safety girl and have a few ideas of things you can do to keep your cell phone from exposing you.

1. Backup your contacts. It's true this is easier said than done, but it's worth doing. If your carrier doesn't provide a way for you to sync contacts over-the-air or you can't sync your cell phone with your computer via Bluetooth, consider getting synching cable and software that works with your computer and phone.

2. If possible, mark contacts private. Some cell phones offer the option to mark an address entry as private. This means you can still dial the person from the phonebook entry but their actual number doesn't appear in the address book without a password of some sort. It's kind of cool in a James Bond kind of way but not all phones have this feature.

3. Save important photos, video and texts offline. Some Nokia cell phones work with the company's Lifeblog software, which essentially gives you another way to save texts, videos and photos in one place on your computer. If you don't have a phone that supports this software or software that lets you sync your cell phone with your computer, you can always send photos, texts and videos to your e-mail address for an easy way to back up your important content.

4. Use lock codes when using Bluetooth. Before pairing with any Bluetooth device always use a lock code (a 4 digit code that you create on your phone in the Bluetooth menu that the device you want to pair with your cell phone needs to enter as well to gain access). When all else fails, if you're not using the Bluetooth feature in your cell phone, keep it turned off. You'll likely improve battery life on your cell phone and it can't catch anything if it can't be seen.

5. Don't save passwords. Even though it's sometimes easier to let your phone remember your passwords -- whether it's checking email or logging onto a website from your cell phone -- resist the temptation. If you lose your cell phone, whoever finds it might be able to see sites you visit on it but little else.

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Phone Smarts

If you use ZipCar - a service that allow you to borrow cars in a city at an hourly/daily rate without all the hassles of having a car in a city- you'll be happy to learn that the company has joined the ranks of other travel services and launched text message alerts. Text's include messages on the type of car you reserved and times and (now for the interesting one) even texts alerting you if someone has reserved the car right after you. The latter is a great use of text message since things happen once you get the car: you spot a Target store on the way home or get caught in traffic, which means you'll likely need to extend the reservation. Extensions aren't such a big deal, but I bet people will be less likely to extend if they know someone is waiting for the car. At least, I know I would.

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In The Know

I hear a lot of cell phone dating stories. Since I hear many of the same scenarios more than once (different players, different lines, same story) I always wonder is this a trend or a rarity. Samsung polled single females on just this topic. Finally, some stats to make the people I know feel a little more well adjusted. There were a lot of interesting points and some that were expected. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Almost one-third of respondents said they can tell a good amount about a person by the type of cell phone they have (32%). - I have to admit, I can too.
• More than one out of three SMFs have had a friend call them to interrupt a date (34%). - I've been asked by friend's to do this for them.
• A whopping 70% said they have snooped on their significant other’s cell phone - for example, by looking through text messages or picking up their phone to see who is calling. - I've heard tales of this before and apparently it's causing quite the stir in Kenya.
• Single mobile females use cell phones to avoid calls: 40% have faked technical difficulties to avoid someone they were not interested in dating. - I haven't heard stories about this, but now I can't wait to hear how people pull this one off.
• 78% of females surveyed prefer to give their cell phone number to someone they are attracted to. - Well, yeah. Who doesn't?

You can see the rest of the results of the survey here. Is this how you use your cell phone too?

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Somethin' To Talk About

Verizon Wireless announced the availability of the latest version of the Chocolate (LG 8550). From the specs it looks like this Chocolate is a definite upgrade (think: Hershey vs. Godiva). It still has the 1.3-megapixel camera (now you'll be able to zoom, edit and crop pics on the phone) and Bluetooth. This version also has a new navigation wheel with something called Trace Motion light. I'm not really sure what that means, but it has to be an improved scroll wheel, which is probably less sensitive than the first version. Although, I didn't have a real problem with sensitivity on that model once I adjusted the feature on the cell phone. The real key upgrade here is the new Chocolate's ability to support a 4GB microSD card. That's huge - especially, when you realize not all cell phones can read just any size microSD card. It seems to me that it's got all the right upgrades, now I just want to see how it's all been implemented.

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In The Know

The short answer is maybe. According to this post on Textually.org, marriages in Kenya are at risk due to cell phone abuse. When I say abuse, it's spouses reading the messages on their respective other's cell phone. Clearly, there are some trust issues.

In regards to the title of this post, if you have to think about it then your cell phone might be betraying you. If you don't, it's probably not. Of course, if you have nothing to hide then you're in the clear.

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Somethin' To Talk About

A friend of mine moved to town recently and called me to find out which is the best carrier in the area. He asked a few people and got conflicting responses and thought I would know the answer. Well, I didn't know the answer to his question because honestly it's different for everyone, but I knew how to find out. I asked him if this was going to be his only phone or if he was going to get a separate landline. Turns out this was going to be it. So I loaded my phones - one from each service provider - and headed over to his house to see which worked best there. Sure enough, most of the phones barely got a signal in his house and his decision became pretty simple. He went with the one that worked.

Now, I know not everyone has the luxury of knowing someone who has cell phone service with every major carrier. But you might know a few people who all have different service. If you're trying to pick the service provider that works best in your house invite people over who have different cell phone service. Before you know it you'll be able to figure out which carrier is right for you.

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Somethin' To Talk About

How many times has this happened to you? Think your phone is vibrating in your pocket or buzzing when it's across the room for you? Apparently, this is quite a regular phenomenon. I've heard of this before even experienced it a time or two myself, so I'm glad to learn I'm not alone.

On a similar point, is there anything you can do to keep from checking if your cell phone is ringing? I have a friend, who was waiting for a call and couldn't stop checking her cell phone. What was her solution? Easy. Turn the cell phone's ringer to "silent."

"This way," she said, "My phone can't trick me because I'm tricking it."

Seems like a good fix. Did it work? Initially, it did a little bit. Yet, inevitably it wasn't a perfect solution as she continued to check her cell phone to see if she missed a call. Oddly, she did miss a few calls, just not the one she actually wanted.

 

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Somethin' To Talk About

A relatively new feature we're finding on cell phones today is the inclusion of Instant Messaging (IM) services. Think: text messaging from your computer. You log on from your cell phone and voila you're IMing with others who have IM (either on a computer or cell phone). Teens are already beginning to catch on to this cell phone phenomenon. According to a LetsTalk survey of teens between the ages of 10-18, five percent rate the IM functionality as the most important feature on a cell phone.

AOL has a feature that allows you to send an AOL IM to someone by just using text messaging. All you need to do is type 265010 (don't worry if a dash shows up, the message still gets to the recipient) in the To box. Then in the text box simply type the AIM screen name of who you want to IM, followed by a colon. Type your message and hit send. Sounds easy.

I tried this out on a few cell phones and here are few things to know about this feature. First, it doesn't seem to work with all cell phones exactly right. The message always made it to the person we wanted to IM. The IM that arrives comes from a cell phone number so you should probably specify who you are in the message body. However, we didn't always receive a response. And it's not because the recipient didn't try to respond, they did and got a message saying it didn't go through. So don't be too hard on IM buddies if you don't get a response. When it does work, you get a text message with the response on your cell phone.

Bottom line: It's a neat trick when it works ;)

Topics:

Phone Smarts

There seems to be a lot of stuff happening in regards to cell phones this week. AT&T announced the ability to allow users to share video to other AT&T cell phone users who have the correct handset. Verizon Wireless announced the ability to pay for things using your cell phone. The thing about these two announcements are that these are ideas we've heard about in the past, but haven't really seen come to fruition. So on the one hand it's exciting to see these announcements, but on the other hand it's hard to comment until you see them in action. Do people really want to stream video to other phones? Maybe, it probably depends on the immediacy need and subject matter. Will people really understand using a cell phone to pay for something? It works with credit cards and checks, so maybe it won't be a tough concept to get. But the news I found most interesting this week is one that involves new ways to use the cell phone in your pocket.

According to this post spotted on Textually.org, someone actually wrote an entire novel on a cell phone. Talk about a lot of time on your hands. Though, it does make me realize that we do have this great note taking feature with us in our cell phones, regardless if it's a smartphone or one that just has the basics covered. Whether we want to send ourselves a text or use the voice record feature to leave reminders for ourselves. This and the other announcements made this week are a good reminder of just all the things that a cell phone does beyond make calls.

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Somethin' To Talk About

When buying a cell phone and plan, consumers are often upset about getting locked into a service plan, only to find that later they want to change the plan. Unfortunately, by the time they figure out they want to change the plan, those changes usually mean extending a contract. Some people are fine with that others not so much.

Here's how it works: you get a cell phone and sign-up for a plan. When picking a plan you may either err on the side of getting too many minutes or on the side of getting too few. Figuring out the right amount of minutes and extras isn't easily done. You'll usually have about 10 to 15 days (it varies by carrier) to return the phone or change your plan without having to pay the termination fees or extend a contract (you do, however, have to pay for the minutes/data you actually use). So you should really put that new cell phone and service to the test immediately.

Sprint Nextel allows customers three months to make plan changes, without having to sign up for a new contract. This is not handset changes. The company recently changed the three month time frame to six months for new customers and those who are extending existing contracts. That's pretty good, since life happens and your cell phone service plan needs can suddenly change. Additionally, remember that 10-15 day rule I mentioned earlier in this post? Well, Sprint Nextel has that set at 30 days.

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In The Know

I have a friend, who constantly asks me about the availability of a pretty simple cell phone application: basically, it's a built-in pedometer.

My response, "I haven't seen it yet, but it can probably be done."

His response, "Yeah, why do you think it can be done?"

My response, "There's GPS functionality in phones, which you can probably use to help track the steps and get the pedometer to work somehow. Plus, you can get maps on cell phones, too. Between those two features and a little know how, I'm sure someone can write a program."

 Now, alas, there is such a program called "Beauty Walker." 

The bad news? It's available in Japan.

Now, if only someone could create that program in the States. I'd use it, but I'd call it something else.

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Somethin' To Talk About

We all know teens are big fans of text messaging. Teens are also new drivers or are learning to become new drivers. This is probably why some states (New Jersey, New York, and California) are getting on the bandwagon and trying to put a stop to teens texting while driving. In fact, Oregon just passed such a bill, which would fine drivers under age 18 $90 for driving while using a phone in any capacity. This isn't a bad idea. According to a LetsTalk survey, 11% of teens are already sending/receiving text messages while in a car. Whether or not they're driving while doing it is another question entirely. However, teens are becoming more and more accustomed to texting from many places. What is to stop them from doing it while driving?

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Somethin' To Talk About

TeleNav, the GPS service you can purchase on your cell phone for an additional $9.99 a month, has just added some new features. In short, the application has become a little bit more interactive. Users of the service can send information on their individual location to anyone who can accept a text message. There's also other nifty features the service supports that now has this functionality. For example, if you've found some gas at an affordable price you can send the information via text to anyone, as well. Don't want to spend that much time interacting with the TeleNav service on your cell phone? No worries, once you have an account you can access it from the company's website.

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Somethin' To Talk About

First, a disclaimer. I'm not now, nor have I ever been a video gamer. In fact, I'm so bad at Guitar Hero, I've yet to actually finish a song. And don't even get me started on Wii games. But I digress, back to my latest addiction. It's PumpJack, the game included with the Sidekick ID (which I'm currently reviewing). It works like this: You're a tire and your goal is to collect as much gas as you can before an evil cactus comes to life and destroys your tire. You don't want that. It's bad. Additionally, carrots are scattered throughout the game. Once you collect a carrot you can potentially destroy an evil cactus, thereby increasing your chances to get to the next level, where (you guessed it) you proceed to get more gas. It's not a particularly interesting game, it offers no real mental stimulation, and you don't need to have much of a strategy to win, but I can't stop playing it just the same. So why do I love it? I really don't know.

But the point is more about games on cell phones. Many cell phones that have games included usually only have demos. The idea, of course, is to get you hooked so you'll buy it. But playing games on cell phones is also a great way to get the "feel" of a phone and how well it works for you. In this case, you can control the tire using the trackball or the four-way navigation key on the opposite side of the screen. This inevitably gave me a better "feel" for using the trackball. So what's the point? Besides that I really need to work on my gaming interests; playing games on a cell phone is actually useful too. It's a quick way to see if you and the phone controls are a good match.

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Phone Smarts

No sooner did I write about interesting cell phone alerts did I find one more with supernatural appeal. Textually.org posted a piece on a downloadable tool for cell phones that will let you know if there are ghosts in your presence. Aptly called "The Ghost Detector," you can download it as part of a "Most Haunted" mobile subscription. Apparently, cell phones can be quite a scary place.

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Somethin' To Talk About

If you've been following cell phone industry news lately, you've probably noticed there are some (let's just call them interesting) thoughts on potential new cell phone features. There's the earthquake alert system being developed in Japan and the lightning detector from Nokia. Now, apparently, there's a proposal to add hazardous material detectors to cell phones. Of course these new safety related features further attest to the popularity of cell phones and that most people carry them daily. Yet, whenever new features are added to a cell phone there's always a risk that something else the cell phone does will be compromised. It leaves me to wonder, just because the functionality can be added should it?

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Somethin' To Talk About

I can't tell you how many times I hear about "cell phone envy" of our friends across the pond. There are many, many reasons why we don't have all the cell phones here that are available in Europe. That said, there are many things you can look at involving cell phones that are often a harbinger of things to come State-side. Case in point, text messaging.

For years now, we've been picking up what cell phone users on the other side of the Atlantic and Pacific have been putting down. Text messaging was big abroad before it caught on here (again, there are many, many reasons for that as well). In particular, interactive messaging (aka voting for a contestant on a favorite TV show from a handset) was big there first and as such the pitfalls of such an activity were initially revealed there. I'm talking about fraudulent SMS voting. To avoid that here the Mobile Entertainment Forum is developing a set of guidelines to help avoid that here. Though it still needs to be voted on by the committee, it's a proactive step in the right direction. This just goes to show, sometimes being first isn't always best.

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Observed

According to this news story, Regal Entertainment Group has introduced a device for movie goers. It's called a Guest Response System and it basically allows users to inform the movie theater staff if there's an issues with their movie going experience. It's obvious a main reason for creating the device is to help put an end to movie piracy and as such it gives customers a seemingly anonymous way to report people who are at the movies filming the flick via a portable video recorder. But that's not the device's only use. According to the article it can also be used to alert the movie theater staff of people talking during the show, using a cell phone or any other activity that might disturb a fellow movie goer.

It's true people still don't always heed the warnings of "Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man"  and continue to not turn off cell phones during movies. But is a "Guest Response System" really the answer? I'd like to think that people can monitor themselves and use a little common sense. If you really can't be without your phone for more than two hours (for whatever reason - good or bad), turn the ringer to vibrate and keep it in your pocket. If it goes off and you must know who called you at that moment leave your seat and check it outside of the theater. Believe it or not the light the cell phone screen emits can be just as disturbing as taking a call.

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Somethin' To Talk About

First spotted this nifty little tool on Textually.org. Basically, Yowgo (interesting name) is a search engine that you can use to find pictures on the Web and then send them to your cell phone. Of course, your phone has to be able to receive texts and download images. While the service is free, you are paying for the cost of the message and the data time to connect to the site to download your picture. Still, that said, this is a pretty cool little "free" application. I gave it a whirl and within minutes I had a picture of someone surfing on my cell phone set as my screen saver.

Simply go to the Yowgo web site, use the search engine to find a picture of something you want to see on your cell phone. Once you choose an image you want, click "Send to phone," enter the phone number and then voila in seconds you'll get a text on your cell phone and a link to download the picture.

If you have pictures in mind that you want to put on your cell phone, you can use the widget and so long as the images are on a web site you should have no problem sending them to your cell phone.

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Phone Smarts

I admit it, I wasn't particularly looking forward to the 24 season finale. I'm not exactly sure why, but maybe it's because every time I got remotely excited about the show again (this was definitely not easy this season), it inevitably disappointed me. Or perhaps it's because I think 24 has finally jumped the shark and then I learn that Kiefer has signed on for another two years (though, there are reports that it will be an entirely different show, but who knows). Or it could be because I doubted there would be much to write about on the cell phone front (about all I got was the use of the word PDA - seemingly odd in the context in which it was used). Or just maybe I had no excitement about the conclusion because I had grown tired of the show by the end of this season. It's hard to say, but at any rate I'm glad it's over.

So many things were tied up a little too neatly (Morris and Chloe get together because she's pregnant; Bill and Karen retire together presumably happily ever after; Nadia learns of Milo's love for her; Doyle's career has probably ended since he has been blinded by an explosion; and Jack bids Audrey farewell for her own good) and yet others, in true 24 form, were never to be heard of again (President Palmer - Did he live? Did he die? Does he have brain damage? And what became of his sister? Will Lisa go to jail for sleeping with a Russian spy?). At any rate 24 has been a long, strange season. Maybe next year it will be the dawn of a new day where characters occasionally go to the bathroom, get some sleep or finally eat something.

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Observed

Spotted on Textually.org, were the results of a survey about messaging from 160characters.org. According to the results of the survey, 84% of users expect a SMS response in 5 minutes. While 84% of respondents said they would respond to a personal SMS in less than 30 minutes.

There's a bit of a disconnect on the time frame there, but one thing is clear: if you want a timely response send a text. As for the 5 minute rule, I don't know if I'm buying that entirely. I think it depends entirely on who is sending the text and its content. I've had to talk many friends off of the texting ledge while they impatiently waited for a response from a hope-to-be significant other. In that scenario, people tend to want the response instantly and begin to think the worst, thereby sending themselves into a head-spin until they get a response. It's not pretty. Clearly, 5 minutes can seem like an eternity for those who sent the text and even longer for those who are subjected to waiting with them for a response.

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Somethin' To Talk About

If you ever wondered what happened to all the great content that was really the heart and soul of ESPN's MVNO, it hasn't gone away. It's here. Well, "here," is a relative term. It can now be found on Verizon Wireless' VCast service. You don't have to pay a separate subscription fee, but if your not a VCast monthly subscriber you'll need to add that to your service if you want access to ESPN MVP sports content. The VCast service costs about $15 a month and you'll get access to ESPN MVP, plus access to a bunch of other content and the ability to check your web-based e-mail

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Observed

Chip Chicklets had a post about a phones for kids. It wasn't about Disney Mobile or any other popular kid-specific phone. Instead, it was about a company I remember from way back when: Wherify. The company has been around a while in the GPS world and a few years ago it broke into the cell phone world with products that help parents keep track of their kids. Since then, not too much has changed, but it does look like the cell phones are well at least looking more like cell phones. The Wherifone actually looks like a cell phone that was still popular around the same time the company made its wireless debut, the Ericsson T28. Yep, you read correctly, that was Ericsson's last big "hot" phone before the creation of Sony Ericsson.

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Somethin' To Talk About

T-Mobile recently released the results of a Harris Interactive survey stating that "25 percent of mothers who have cell phones say that if they cannot spend Mother’s Day with their children they would like a recent picture of a loved one."

There you have it, the old adage is true, "It's the thought that counts." Can't be with mom? Send her a picture of yourself. She'll love it. Don't have access to a digital camera? No worries, plenty of camera phones have a self portrait mode. Snap a pic of yourself and send it via email or multimedia message directly from your cell phone. If you happen to be a T-Mobile customer, the thought is free. The company is allowing customers to send unlimited text, picture and video messages on Sunday, May 13th.

If you're not a T-Mobile customer you can still snap and send a picture. Even if you don't have a messaging plan the message will cost you about 15 cents on average (depending on your carrier) - that's cheaper than a postage stamp.

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Somethin' To Talk About

Once in a while something totally frivolous, but totally worthwhile comes along in the cell phone world. I like to think of these things fondly as impulse buys, you know, all that little stuff lined up neatly at the checkout counter that you had no idea you needed until you saw it and quickly realized you can't live without it. Yes, impulse shopping, you never know what you might find. Here's one from Verizon Wireless, "Create your own comic." You can find it under Pix or Wallpaper options in the Get it Now menu on many Verizon cell phones (supported handsets include, but are not limited to Chocolate, LG enV, Krzr, Slvr L7c, Samsung SCH-a990 and SCH-a930), it's called Comic Creator.

Simply download the app (it costs $4 a month) and you can start creating your own cartoon strips. You choose from a few basic settings, different characters (you can change their emotions, but not much else) and then start filling in the dialog. KamakaziTXTR (see below and think: the TV show Heroes) took me about 5 minutes to create. You can then send it to an email address or cell phone number (20 text messages are included with the $4 monthly fee, send to as many email addresses as you want).

It doesn't matter if the recipient has the application or not, it appears as a picture message. Once you receive a message alerting you that a comic is awaiting to be sent to you, then you decide if you want to accept it or not. So if you don't have a text messaging plan or don't want to cough up 15 cents to see you're friend's comic genius, you don't have too. This is pure entertainment.

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Phone Smarts

NY1, which is a local New York news station, has a poll on its site about students and cell phones in schools. What struck me about this poll is what's missing from it. The choice of parents is absent from the list of who should decide if children should bring phones to school or not. Maybe it's because kids have cell phones because their parents purchase them and thus parents have already made a decision about phones and schools. That's a leap. Parents have only decided if their kids should have a phone, not where it should be used.

Do you think parents should have a say on whether phones are allowed in schools?

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Somethin' To Talk About

It constantly astonishes me that CTU has so many breaches in security. Ok, no mole yet (and I guess it's not going to be Milo - wasn't there a plot line about that earlier in the day?), but you'd think after past seasons someone would have figured out how to make the place more secure. Of course, the one thing that really made no sense was that once the system got breached how come Doyle didn't think to call someones cell phone? That just doesn't seem like him - regardless of how long a day he's had. And when all the cell phones of employees were collected no one received any calls or texts; what was that about? Could it be because it was 2am in the morning?

Maybe, I'll give them that one.

Topics:

Observed

Sir Charles is not the the MyFaves of any Golden State fans! So said the signs of exiting fans at Oakland Arena following the Golden State Warriors fans following their 111 - 86 beat down of the Dallas Mavericks. If anyone missed it, T-Mobile's loveable "round mound of rebound" MyFaves spokesman picked Dallas to win the series, then got his digs in at the Bay Area in frustration. His best shot: "The Bay Area is just a refuge for people who can't afford L.A." Classic. On a final note, if Dirk does win the MVP, he'll join Moses Malone (twice 78-79, 81-82) and Wes Unseld (68-69) as the only winners to lose in the first round. That's good company, but he has no business being in the MVP argument over Nash or Kobe.

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Observed

Verizon Wireless released it's list of Top 10 selling Bon Jovi songs. It's an interesting mix of old and new hits, which makes me wonder about the demographic of those people downloading these songs - is it the younger generation of listeners who are new to Bon Jovi or those who remember Bon Jovi, decked out in 80s clothing with matching big hair, who would fly out over the audience ala Superman? I don't know, but I was surprised to see that the other great 80s hit, "Shot Through the Heart," was oddly absent from the list. So I decided to check out the VCast Bon Jovi offering and it is indeed a full library, with just about every song and even a few I didn't expect to see like Bon Jovi's cover of "I Don't Like Mondays." Anyway, in case you're wondering here's the list (1 - 10) as reported by Verizon Wireless:

• “Have A Nice Day”
• “Wanted Dead or Alive”
• “Livin' On A Prayer”
• “It's My Life”
• “You Give Love A Bad Name”
• “Who Says You Can't Go Home”
• “Always”
• “Who Says You Can't Go Home” (Duet with Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland)
• “Never Say Goodbye”
• “I'll Be There For You”

In case you didn't know, you get two copies of any song you buy on your cell phone from Verizon Wireless. One is downloaded directly to your phone and the other you can download to your computer from the Verizon Wireless music web site.

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

Sony Ericsson has a few new releases to coincide with the upcoming release of Spiderman 3, which will be appearing in theaters this week. There are reports that the company will debut a few Spiderman-inspired versions of the K800i, the K750i, K550i, and the K610i as well as complimentary accessories, in case you're not ready to get a new phone.

Movies and their inspired cell phones are nothing new and it's not surprising that Sony Ericsson has products that coincide with Sony's upcoming movie release. There was the Matrix phone from Samsung (the SPH-n270) and later this summer there will be a Simpson's phone from Samsung to coincide with the release of that movie. 

Check out the picture from Just Another Mobile Phone Blog:

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

My friend called to tell me how proud I would be of her for her latest cell phone encounter. Her cell phone died. This is not a shock, she cycles through cell phones every 6 months to a year. She'd be a perfect candidate for cell phone insurance, if she could handle living a day without her phone. Unfortunately, that's not the case.

Anyway, her latest cell phone (Motorola V325) broke, so she had to get a new one. (I know the model number of all my friends phones. Yes, it's a problem.). I should note this phone had a longer life than most, which is impressive. My friend is darn hard on her cell phones. So she got another Motorola cell phone. This was her revelation: "It was so great getting a phone from the same manufacturer because I already knew how to do everything and it was totally easy to figure out." I could hear the glee in her voice over the phone. "See, wasn't that a good idea?"

Well, honestly, yes and no. See, my friend has Verizon Wireless service and what she doesn't know is that all Verizon cell phones have basically the same user interface so whether you buy a Motorola or a LG, it's going to have an extremely similar interface that she'd have no problem mastering quickly. But I understand the learning curve issue. It happens to everyone and if she figured out a way to avoid that and enjoy her phone all that much more - all the power to her. Not wanting to damper her excitement, I said, "Wow, that's great. Glad it's all working for you!"

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Somethin' To Talk About

And the wonders from DoCoMo will never cease. (Thanks to Moconews for this.) Now my favorite carrier in the world is adding motion sensitive gaming to their cell phones, much like the Nintendo Wii.

I'm blown away by how much this could change mobile gaming, but on the business side I'm also blown away by how many replacement handsets could be sold once this hits the US.

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Observed

As expected, 24 has taken a turn in the right direction, though there were some odd moments in last night's episode. The first thing I found just plain weird was when Bill named Nadia acting head of CTU in his absence. What was that about? They accused her of working with the terrorists and since she wasn't to repay her she's in charge of CTU. But I digress.

There was also lots of cell phone talk about decrypting conversations, tracking calls between towers and of course deciphering the terrorist cell phone that Jack had in hand. Not to get too picky on this point, but if CTU can figure out which phone Jack had why didn't they just track him using the GPS in the cell phone.

I think my favorite phone moment was while everyone was trying to locate Jack, he was leaving a message for Bill providing him with his exact whereabouts. How come Bill didn't answer his phone or at least retrieve his messages? Maybe Jack called Bill's home phone? (Who knows at this point.) My only question now is who is going to get that message. It's got to be important because it seemed a little uncharacteristic of Jack to make that call.

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Observed

I'm longing to die and be reincarnated in Japan. Between the Shinkansen bullet trains and the annual crop of coolest phones on the planet coming out of the land of the rising sun, if it wasn't for the language issue I'd be set. With the usual thanks to Engadget Mobile for this, NTT DoCoMo has just announced several new phones with some killer functions.

Jump over to read up, but the 2n1 support is something I've been begging for for years: two phone numbers, email addresses, phone books, and so on . . . with an A, B and even a dual-mode (running both numbers simultaneously?) This takes the converged device concept up several notches; I can picture a lot of people switching into B only mode on Friday at 4PM.

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Observed

I'm going to try to start a new Phone Talk tradition of Free Stuff Fridays. There may be other days I post links to free stuff, and some Fridays I might link to more than one free stuff giveaway. So here's the inaguaral one:

With all thanks to AllAbout Symbian for finding this, S60.com is offerring several free gmaes and downloads for yor Symbian Series 60 2nd & 3rd Edition Cell Phones (Nokia 3650, Nokia 6600/6620, Nokia 6682, Nokia N73, Nokia N80, Nokia N90, Nokia N91, Nokia N95) The Jump Shot game is pretty cool . . . a nice distraction for that 10 minutes you're trying to kill. You do need to register as a user, and once you've logged in go to the MyS60 tab and look under My Exculsives for the free games andother downloads.

Topics:

In The Know

Forgot to put some music on your cell phone for that long public transportation commute home, no worries, soon you'll be able to get romance novels on your cell phone. You know, if that's what you like to read. These are not just any romance books, they come from Mills and Boon. Never heard of them? Maybe you've heard of their parent company, Harlequin. I wonder if the downloadable mobile books will come with pictures of Fabio.

 

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Somethin' To Talk About

According to a tipster over at Engadget Mobile, AT&T is set to launch a $19.99 unlimited messaging option for your cell phone on April 20th! So if you're a heavy texter remember to call AT&T/Cingular (you can just dial 611 from your Cingular cell phone) this Friday morning and add on the new Messaging Unlimited. Though given the date, the demographic leanings of texters and their proclivity towards 420ing on 4/20, I'll bet that textng will be pretty light this Friday. An SMS campaign by Dominos might do pretty well!

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In The Know

In the world of make believe in he year 2018, truer words have never been spoken. 24 pulled a Michael Corleone on me last week, pulling me back in right when I was out. Fayed beat to a pulp and hung by the chain of an engine block lift, Audrey is alive and Cheng Zhi is back in the picture!

And in breaking cell phone news, the Nextel i830 can receive encrypted schematics of a Russian suitcase nuke. (I assume that's covered under the standard messaging package.) Nice to see Jack back on the cell. And true to 24 form, the bad guys are all on Sprint CDMA. Cheng looked like he was on a Samsung Glint, but I can't be sure.

I was hoping that when Jack got the drop on Scarface Ricky (who just joined Ricky Henderson, Dennis Connor and Lin Shaye in the Leatherface Society) he would have pulled out some line about how he rerouted the auxilary decrypter to hack into his call. All I know is that we have six hours left for Cheng Zhi to suffer a fate on some biblical scale: "As soon as I get the signal from you that Audrey is safe, two things are going to happen. I'm going to destroy that circuit board, and Cheng Zhi isn't going to make it out of here alive."

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Observed

Verizon Wireless announced the availability of unlimited text, picture, video and IM messaging. Before you get too excited, this isn't an add-on feature that you can add to your existing plan. This is a new feature of the America's Choice Select Plans. The company also announced a similar feature for the America's Choice Family SharePlan Select. This isn't the first news of messaging plans from the company, however, it is an interesting approach. Of course, Verizon Wireless still offers add-on messaging plans. While those plans include a lot they aren't exactly unlimited.

So which way to go if you're a Verizon Wireless user? That really depends on you and how many messages you send and receive and how many you send/receive a month. If you're finding the 1,500 messages for $15 a month not being quite enough, your best bet is to switch plans. But if you find that you're having a hard time using up the 250 allotted messages on the $5 plan, stick with that.

Another point to consider is mobile IM. Are you an avid user? If so, that could be another reason to make the switch.

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In The Know

Here's something you don't see everyday and maybe you don't want to either, but still I can't resist. We're constantly seeing innovative cell phone designs including anything from the Upstage - music on one side and phone on the other to reptilian inspired designs, but this is something completely different. A cell phone that looks like a surfboard.

Apparently, it's designed to stand straight up (no sand needed) using the collapsible single fin (something you definitely don't want when you're surfing) as support. I don't know, I might like it better if the surfboard cell phone had a three-fin thruster instead, since that's the kind of board I used to learn to surf. Regardless, this is one I wouldn't bring with me to the beach.

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Observed

Well, I'll leave it up to you decide if it's fashionable, but the solar powered charging purse from Polar Picard sure does seem to be functional. The purse has solar panels inside that can be used to charge a cell phone or other portable electronic device. Haven't seen the actual product, first got wind of it from productdose.com, but I'm wondering how it will be able to charge so many different types of devices. Will there be adapters included for it's speculative $700 price tag. While battery life is a huge issue I consider when reviewing cell phones, I don't know if I could pony up $700 for this purse, which may or may not be all that cute.

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

It's about at this point in the 24 season that the show starts to get really good, nail-biting on-the-edge of your seat good. Last night's episode was not a disappointment. It was great that the bomb threat didn't take the full 24 hours to resolve. And finally, Doyle totally gets Jack's full capabilities. Though I see Doyle as a young Bauer making his way in the CTU organization, it seemed obvious that Doyle thought of Bauer as an old timer who should just call it a day. A threat Jack seems to make, but never quite commits to. I also like that, in a way, I'm being rewarded for being a long-time 24 watcher with the return of none other than Audrey. So all you veteran 24 fans, who sort of lost interest this season, you can totally start watching again next Monday and not be too lost.

But I digress...It's all about the cell phones here at PhoneTalk and I was pleased to see that there was no insane use of cell phones in this episode. Quite the contrary, actually; cell phones and some of their flaws were used to complete a mission. My favorite was the lack of signal in the tunnel and exactly what happens when you hit a dead zone. Though, I should note, coverage is getting much much better and there are some tunnels where you can just keep on talking on your cell phone. But it also wasn't a stretch that the garage truck driver had a cell phone on him that could easily be found and taken. My favorite, of course, was when Jack was secured under the truck calling CTU and got cut off and CTU was left to other means to locate Jack and the bombs.

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Observed

A recent poll sponsored by TeleNav, shows that 60 percent of women would feel safer on the road with a GPS system by their side. I don't think this means women are less willing to stop and ask for directions, regardless if it's from a service on their cell phone, a built-in navigator system in their car, or the old fashion way by stopping and asking at a gas station. There are a ton of these services available for your cell phone and they usually cost about $10 a month (yes, that's in addition to your existing cell phone service fees). Regardless of how you choose to get your directions, it's best to pull off to the side of the road and get your coordinates all squared away. Besides you're likely to become even more lost if you keep driving while waiting for your new set of directions.

Call me old school, but my favorite navigation tool is still old fashion human contact. I like getting close to my destination and then calling the location to get directions that will steer me in. And when I say calling, I mean using a headset or the speakerphone feature on my cell phone of course.

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Observed

Here's a cell phone application you don't see everyday. Picture this: You're taking a stroll down the street and run into a bike that's locked up but available - all you need to do to rent it is place a call with your cell phone and wait to receive an unlock code via a text message. When you're done with your bike ride simply call the company back so they know your rental is finished. This is the idea behind OYBike and it's one of the more inventive, yet basic uses of a cell phone I've seen in awhile.

Unfortunately, this service isn't available here in the states. You can only find it across the pond. But I gotta say, I love the name. It doesn't get much better than OYBike, which right or wrong I pronounce Oy, Bike.

 

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Somethin' To Talk About

The FCC decided that consumers will not be able to use cell phones during plane rides. As you can see from the article about the decision, reasoning behind this decision is a bit nebulous, but regardless it's a good decision.  

If there's anything you must have access to on your cell phone while on a plane, such as downloaded music or games, you still can. Most cell phones have an Airplane Mode, which essentially turns the radio off in your cell phone. This means you can access features on your phone that don't require making calls or using wireless data networks. You just need to turn it on by accessing settings and in that menu you'll most likely be able to find an Airplane Mode in the menu options.

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Somethin' To Talk About

What does your cell phone say about you? Probably a lot more than you know. According to this survey done in Australia, Nielsen Media Research broke down identifying characteristics of particular cell phone brand owners. Would you agree? If not, what is it that you want your cell phone to say about you?

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

Now that the show is over, it's easy to look back and point out some overall trends that came out of CTIA that we should be seeing this year. Here's my wrap-up:

Pretty, shiny, phones: It seemed as if at every turn a manufacturer showed off a shiny cell phone. While they sure are pretty, they can be a bit of high maintenance since you're constantly wiping fingerprints and other smudges off the handset. Still, there sure were some pretty phones like the LG Shine, Sony Ericsson Z750 and the Nokia N76.

Stereo Bluetooth: Many cell phones announced at the show have stereo Bluetooth. So what is that? It's exactly what you think: the ability to use Bluetooth-enabled headphones and listen to music in stereo. The exciting news about this is that I'm looking forward to seeing more Bluetooth-enabled headphones coming out soon. Plus, it means no one is taking music too lightly or considers it a passing trend. Music and phones seem here to stay.

2.0-megapixel camera: Last year we heard a lot about 1.3-megapixel camera phones. This year it was 2.0-megapixel camera phones. There are already a few cell phones with this functionality available such as the Samsung SPH-M610. You could say cameras on cell phones are improving, but does it really mean it's time to give up the old digital camera? Maybe not, we'll just have to see how well these cameras do with capturing images first.

Mobile entertainment: If you haven't figured out that cell phones aren't just for making calls, welcome to CTIA 2007. From having the ability to watch TV on a cell phone via Verizon Wireless's Mobile TV to Sprint Nextel's commitment to music with adding the UpStage music phone to its line-up to Sony Ericsson's Picture Blogging application on cell phones, you really should never be bored anywhere so long as you've got a cell phone in your pocket.

There you have it. Those are some of the bigger themes we saw at the show this year. You can expect to see some of these features on cell phones now and even more availability throughout the year.

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New at CTIA

At the beginning of CTIA, I got a Samsung SCH-U620 to try out Verizon Wireless' new VCAST Mobile TV service. The company unveiled the new service at CES. In short, it's TV for your cell phone. Verizon made good on its promise to have the service up and running in the next few months. It's available on two phones this Samsung and the LG VX9400. Now, it's the end of the show and I'm sitting at the airport finally getting a chance to play with it. It's a pretty nifty service.

Many of the channels are news, some of the channels show programming that already appeared on TV (think: JetBlue's TV service that can have 6 hours straight of Designed to Sell), and some live TV. For example, last night I could have watched Jericho on the cell phone at the same time it aired on TV. There's also plenty of cartoons appearing. I bet some parents wouldn't mind handing off the cell phone to kids sitting in the back during long drives. When I was growing up all we had for the car were those magic ink game books. Things sure have changed!

As for streaming video quality, it really depends a lot on network coverage. Typically if we had 3 bars of network service or more it really was quite good, commercials and all. A little less than that and streaming quality suffered a little. However, there's an antenna and extending seemed to help a lot. You can view TV in either landscape or portrait mode. Sound was good too. You could listen to the TV show through the cell phone's speaker or via a headset. Easiest way to access TV on this cell phone was to hit the button with a TV-like icon on the side of the phone. There's even a guide that you can scroll through to see what's going to be playing later in the day or even the next day. Does it drain battery life? Well, yes it does, but not nearly as fast as we thought. I watched about an hour or more of TV and could still make some calls, check web mail and even had juice left over.

Like I said it's a nifty feature, but not cheap. It costs $25 a month for the service, but you also get Mobile Web with that. So it's essentially about $10 more a month for the service. Not bad especially if you tend to watch a lot of TV.

Samsung SCH-U620

LG VX9400

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New at CTIA

We've all been there: Have a bunch of cell phone voicemail messages, not a lot of time to check and all you really want to know is who called you and if it's a priority you want to listen to that message first. Not so easy to do all that with most cell phone voicemail options. CallWave has a solution to this dilemma. They have a free product that actually delivers voicemail to your e-mail. You can then send back text messages to callers if need be or you know, call them back. More importantly you can scan and check your voicemail just as easily as you check your email. Nice.

Ok, that's cool. But the company announced a new feature at the show. The ability to actually receive a text version of the message on your cell phone as a text message. I checked out the voice-to-text recognition software and it's actually pretty good. It's not so great with names, but you can figure it out easily enough. Though this is a feature that's coming soon, I did learn that if you sign up for the free service you'll be alerted to when the new feature is available. Since the basic product is free, why not take it for a spin?

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New at CTIA

At least, this seems to be the idea behind the company's Ultra line. Samsung showed off a couple of more models at the show: the Ultra 5.9 and the Ultra 12.1. Both cell phones are ultra slim. The Ultra 5.9 (aka the U100) is actually 1mm thinner than the ever popular Trace and sports a 3.2-megapixel camera. While the Ultra 12.1 (aka the U700) is slim as well, sports at 3.2-megapixel camera and supports HSDPA networks (again, that's a super high-speed data connection). But my favorite feature is the scroll wheel navigation located on the front of the cell phone. It spins around just like the iPod's touch sensitive scroll wheel.

No word on when or if either of these cell phones will be available here. So I've got some information on a Samsung phone that is here: the Blackjack. If you want to upgrade the OS to Windows Mobile 6, you'll be able to do it.

Samsung Ultra 12.1

Samsung Ultra 5.9

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New at CTIA

If there's one thing I've learned about cell phones over the years it's that little kids love them... to play with, that is. Every time I'm around kids I just give them a cell phone and they are entertained for at least 10 minutes. I think that's why I really liked this cell phone accessory. It's fun for kids, since I forgot to mention when kids do get to play with a cell phone, that really put it through its paces!

Fun Friends actually give the cell phone a little extra, much-needed safety. Two other bonuses we discovered after using them for a couple of days: finding the cell phone in a purse just got a whole lot easier and second, talking on the cell phone was a lot more comfortable since the stuffed animal actually acts a little like a shoulder rest. They cost about $10 and can be thrown in the washing machine.

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New at CTIA

Is it a cell phone or a mini computer? Hard to tell. Yeah, we're talking about the HTC Advantage. It's got an 8GB hard drive, supports HSDPA (for super high-speed data connections), a full totally usable flat keyboard, gorgeous touchscreen, and runs Windows Mobile 6. You can't really hold it up to your face to make a call and seriously, why would you? it does have Bluetooth, so just attach a headset and start chatting. Sounds like a mini computer but moves like a cell phone. It seems to me more what the PDA should be if it was going to make a comeback. It comes in a nifty leather carrying case, which gives it a bit of datebook profile. Check out the pictures below. It really is something you have to see to get.

The company also announced the S720. It doesn't boast the groovy touchscreen of the Advantage but it does run Mobile 6. We're not sure when this smartphone will hit stateside, but it's one we'd like to see here. It's got a more portable profile than the T-Mobile MDA and looks a lot slicker.

HTC S720

HTC Advantage

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New at CTIA

AMBER alerts have gone wireless, so you can now sign up to get alerts local to your area on your cell phone. The alerts come in the form of text messages (so if you don't have a messaging plan, be aware there could be an additional fee to receive these alerts on your phone). You can sign up for this either at you carrier's web site or check out the AMBER alert website.

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New at CTIA

So we're running on two weeks now with little to no cell phone happenings on 24. It's getting a bit depressing. I was really hoping for Jack to be able to take over the Stealth Nuke Drone with a WiMobile 6 Smartphone or something. Are the show writers losing their fastball? They sure are when it comes to casting. The last couple of episodes have had acting performances more worthy of Cinemax late night TV. I'm half expecting Rob Estes and Nicole Eggert to make cameo appearances as an interrogator team from district who need to question Nadia . . . OK, enough said on that issue, this could go off the rails too quickly.

Though speaking of actors who are available, what on earth happened to Rick(y) Shroeder? Did he have a Mark Hamill style car accident that caved in his face that I'm unaware of? Was he ravaged by locusts? (or by the 6" Manhattan cockroach I killed in my apartment last night?) I'm beginning to suspect that the substance abuse issues that his character on NYPD Blue faced weren't an act. The guy looks like hard living personified. After seeing him on 24, I'm thinking Rick might be a better choice over Matt Dillon for any future Charles Bukowski movies (though Matt was stellar in Factotum.)

Anyway, it looks like Gredenko and Fayed might get some comeuppance next week; and Citadel is back but wobbly. It'll be interesting to see how Dick Cheney/Powers Boothe goes down fighting; his Ann Coulter-esque assistant even played the Malcolm X "by any means necessary" card. I wonder if she'll liken Palmer2 to John Edwards. Maybe we need an appearance by Tim Hardaway on 24 while we're at it!

Topics:

Observed

Remember the cell phone that first supported Apple iTunes? In case, you've forgotten it was the Motorola Rokr. Since that unveiling Motorola has come out with a few music-centric cell phones. Some have iTunes support built-in like the Razr V3i or the Slvr L7, but we haven't really heard one called the Rokr again... until now. Does this cell phone look a bit familiar? It should, it's a soup'd up Rizr. Errr, make that the Rokr. This version supports up 2GB of expandable memory, has a headset jack that you can use to plug in your existing headphones and even has 2-megapixel camera.

While we're talking about Motorola and music, we should mention that Verizon Wireless added the music-centric Razr maxx Ve to it's line up of cell phones today. This Razr also has a 2-megapixel camera and stereo Bluetooth support.

Although neither of these cell phones will have the iTunes app found in the first Rokr, the Slvr L7 or the Razr V3i, you'll still be able to play songs from Apple since it supports AAC music files.

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New at CTIA

Clearly, music and cell phones is big at this show. Sprint Nextel unveiled it's next music phone, Samsung's UpStage (also known as the Samsung Ultra Music). Getting a sense of dejavu? It's probably because we saw a GSM version of it announced at CES. Don't get me wrong, that doesn't make the announcement any less interesting. This cell phone is all about music on one side and cell phone on the other. Is this the perfect marriage of cell phone and MP3 player? It's hard to say until I get a chance to test it out, but it's definitely hard to forget that the two are closely connected. I'm really most curious about Sprint Nextel's implementation of the music feature. That will play a big part in this cell phone's ultimate success.

Ok, but what's my favorite feature about this cell phone? That's easy the thin fold-out battery cover. We saw something similar at Samsung's event last December when the company showed off the "wallet" cell phone.

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New at CTIA

We've been hearing about fashion and technology for quite awhile now. They even had a fashion show here at CTIA. But here's a take on a Bluetooth headset that caught our eye. Nokia's BH-801 (pictured below), it can be worn around your neck as a necklace - though we don't think we'll be seeing it make a debut on the runways of Milan - or attached to a belt clip.

The company also showed off a few other Bluetooth headsets: the BH-201 and the BH-303. So what sets these two headsets apart from all the other petite headsets we've seen at the show? Well, the BH-201 comes with three different sizes of ear gels, which are geared to make it fit into most ears. The BH-303 comes with changeable snap-on covers - they all have a Roxy or beach-y feel to the designs, so perhaps you can swap them out to match your bathing suit.

Nokia BH-801

Nokia BH-201

Nokia BH-303

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New at CTIA

There's not too much to report about the LG Prada cell phone. We were just excited to get to see it since we blogged about it a couple of months back. It lived up to the hype of being an attractive cell phone, but as mentioned in our previous blog as expected it didn't have too many bells and whistles other than being a Prada cell phone. Oh yeah, and there's no word on when or if this cell phone will make it to the United States.

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New at CTIA

You never know what you're going to find buried in the accessory section on the CTIA tradeshow floor. To my surprise, I found something I often need: a mirror. Not just any mirror - one that you can actually stick to the back of your cell phone. Another nifty item, at the same booth, was a flashlight that can also be stuck to the back of a cell phone. That's good news for me, since I'm constantly flipping open my cell phone and using the bright display to guide my way through the dark. Both Cellular Jewelry items cost about $5.

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New at CTIA

Besides the fact that the highly sought-after Nokia N95 will be available in the next few months here in the United States, our next favorite news was that of the N76. It will be available in either sparkly red or sultry black. As expected it runs the same software found on many other N Series cell phones and you can expand the memory of the cell phone up to 2GBs via an external media card, what's not so expected is that this lightweight cell phone is actually made of metal. Yes, metal! We were shocked that it doesn't weigh you down the way the Nokia 8801 could.

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New at CTIA

There are a couple of things you can count on when attending trade shows: long lines and lack of transportation. It's at this intersection where we came across the subject of this post: the latest updates to VZNavigator. There we were standing in line for close to an hour waiting for a cab (Apparently, waiting for a shuttle was just as long), when we realize we remember the name of our hotel but not the location. It's ok we think, the cab driver must know how to get there.

It turns out the guy standing in line in front of us can help us out. He's got this application on his cell phone - a GPS application, to be exact. Mind you, this is not uncommon at a trade show; people make small talk while in line all the time -- and it's no surprise to find someone in line who knows something about cell phones when you're attending CTIA. Turns out he's got the latest updates for VZNavigator. The enhancement that helps us is that he can send us a text message from his VZNavigator application that tells us the hotel, address and even phone number. The phone number, by the way, we can easily dial from our received text message with a single click. Sweet! You know, in case we need to be steered in. Our favorite new feature is that you can plug in all the information on a web site and send it to your cell phone. So while we like having that information on our cell phone, we still aren't fans of inputting it ourselves via the tiny keypads.

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New at CTIA

It seemed like just a few months ago we got excited knowing we could add up to 2GBs of storage to your cell phone via an expandable MicroSD card. At the show, there's been a lot of mention of cell phones supporting up to 4GB of external storage. So what's this 4GB card look like? It looks a lot like the 2GB version and is still about the size of a fingernail - only it says 4 instead of 2.

Now for the real question: Just how much can you store on a 4GB card. On a 2GB card you can get about 480 songs, 640 minutes of video, or 4,800 images taken with a 2MP camera. for 4GB just double it. That's a lot of extra space that doesn't take up a lot of space.

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New at CTIA

By the end of September, I bet a lot of people will be thinking about getting this flip phone from Sony Ericsson. The Z750 to be exact. It's got all the bells and whistles: 2-megapixel camera, world roaming capability, Bluetooth with 2.0 stereo support, MP3 player, and a nifty picture blogging app. It's also going to be the first Sony Ericsson HSDPA phone - which means super fast data connections. While we're partial to pink it also comes in Luster Black for all you dudes. We were most surprised about how light it felt in the hand. Our can of Altoids seemed to weigh us down more.

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New at CTIA

Sony Ericsson has been onto something with its Walkman line of cell phones and at the show today they unveiled two more models: the W580 (about $250) and the W610 (about $350). For quick reference in the picture below the W580 is the white one and the W610 is the black model. The W580 slides and the W610 is a candy bar-style phones. Both sport a 2-megapixel camera, music player, and will support up to 4GB of external memory (that's a ton of music - at least a 1,000 songs) ala Sony's Memory Stick Micro. Yes, Sony Ericsson cell phones support Sony's expandable memory format not the MicroSD card that is more widely in use by other cell phones.

The W580 is really geared more toward the younger crowd. It's got a picture blogging application and it's web browser even has RSS. I'm just wondering where the MySpace home page is on this cell phone.

While the W610 is more about living up to the Walkmans music legacy. It comes with a 512MB Memory Stick Micro. It's got an FM Radio and can even tell you the names of songs playing on the radio via the TrackID application.

Both cell phones should be available in the next few months. No carrier has been announced. But the really good news is that they did make a few enhancements to the menus that make navigating these Sony Ericsson cell phones a whole lot easier.

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New at CTIA

Since I switch cell phones a lot I'm always in need of a way to take my contacts with me. Although, when I'm switching between GSM phones I've got all the numbers I need on my SIM card. I can easily insert the SIM into the new cell phone and copy to the phone's memory. Not a problem. Unfortunately, it's not so easy going from CDMA to GSM. So one of my missions at this show was to find a solution and I found one from DataPilot.

You can get either the Cell Phone Sync Suite (a bit overkill for the average user) for $79.95, which comes with all the adapters you would need to sync your phone up with your computer and then transfer all your contact info stored in your phone to your computer. Then take the adapter (included) for you new cell phone, attach it to the computer and download the contacts to your new cell phone. This fancy case also includes a bluetooth adapter and you can even take stuff off of your iPod and sync it up with your cell phone: pictures, ringtones, text messages, etc.

For about $40 less you can get similar capability, but you can't sync everything from one cell phone to another. You can sync the stuff that really counts - i.e. contacts. Plus the adapter cables can also do double duty as a cell phone charger.

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New at CTIA

We're heading to Orlando, Florida for the annual CTIA show, where manufacturers, carriers, and application developers display what will be hot in cell phones this year. So check back for daily updates to find out more about new phones, accessories and trends we see at the show.

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In The Know

"Is there a law against textual assault?" This was the question I got from a friend recently. Apparently, she's being assaulted by a friend who bombards her with essentially the same text message 5 times in a row, just asked in a slightly different way. She barely has a chance to respond before another form of "Are you here yet?" comes across her screen.

We all know I'm a big fan of texting, but this kind of texting is just too much and I'll tell you why.

1. Text messages aren't free. Don't eat up all the texts in someone's plan with the same message. Give them a chance to respond.

2. Although, text messages don't take up a lot of room, some cell phones have limits to how many texts they can hold in the inbox. A person shouldn't have to constantly be cleaning out the same text message from their inbox. What if they accidentally erase a text they cherished?

3. Would you call someone 5 times in a row asking the same thing? Probably not because you wouldn't want someone to do that to you. I knew that golden rule would come in handy.

4. Although, I view text messaging a bit the same way I view IM, it's definitely not the same (though you might be charged the same for an IM as you are for a text on your cell phone). An IM client, lets you block someone on your list and then you simply don't get a message from them and you don't have to pay for it. Not really an option with text messaging.

5. All those messages you keep sending and your friend has to view is draining the cell phone's battery life. Now is that really a good use of a dwindling cell phone battery? Not so much.

Textual assault sounds a bit rough to me. Maybe it's more like being a textual bully. At any rate, my friend had the best response of all: "She's paying my text message overage charges this month."

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Observed

There's quite a bit of cell phone news coming from Cebit (a gigantic consumer electronics show that has products from all over the world) today. But here's one that I think even the grandparents would like: a super basic cell phone, called "The Life," designed to be loud - it should work with hearing aids and is scheduled to be available around the world in May. The only issue I have with this cell phone is that it also includes the ability to send/receive text messages. That might be one addition geared more for the grand kids than the grandparents.

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Observed

There are a few applications I have always wanted on a cell phone and finally one of them is available. The ability to program your Tivo from your Verizon Wireless cell phone. There have been so many times I'm out with friends or colleagues and we're talking about TV shows. I always think I'd like to record that, but always forget to set the show to record and constantly think why can't I program it from my phone easily. The service from Verizon Wireless is a available for a few of the company's Get It Now phones (yes, the Chocolate's on the list) and costs $1.99 a month for access to the service for your Tivo Series 2 or Series 3 box. You'll have to download an application, so be sure to have a data plan too.

Now, I want to know when a similar service will be available for other DVR devices - namely, the products that the cable companies provide.

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Somethin' To Talk About

Martha and Aaron are back. Leave it to ex-President Logan to drag them into his schemes while he attempts to get back in "play" as Jack would say. Finally, Logan was being his patronizing self and provoked Martha, who ultimately wouldn't let him back in the game.

That wasn't the only glimpse into the past... the Russian Consulate uses satellite phones? What is that about? Don't they know cell phones support International calling plans? Why didn't anyone in the Consulate have a cell phone with them?

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Observed

As it turns out, my brother loves cell phones. Of course, it confuses my mom as she has no idea how we both ended up working in cell phones. It's probably because cell phones were only in cars when we were growing up and we were forced to share the same telephone landline number during those chatty teen years. Anyway, he sends me and everyone else he knows random cell phone tips and it's usually stuff you wouldn't think you need to know but probably should, just in case you need to make small talk at a dinner party.

Today, he sent over detailed instructions on how to update the time in the Blackberry, as they too will be affected by the early Daylight Savings Time change scheduled this weekend. Just visit RIMs dedicated site and pick the solution that's right for you.

Oh and while he sent me the info for the Blackberry, I took it upon myself to find the info for the Treo family of products (sibling rivalry and all) and Symbian cell phones.You can get all you need from the Palm site. And here's what you'll need if you have any of the Nokia E series cell phones.

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Phone Smarts

You may have heard that Daylight Savings Time is coming early this year. Good news is that so much of our lives are already automated and the time will be changed for us. For example, when you wake up the morning Daylight Savings Time goes into affect you're cable box will read the proper time. Likely, so will your cell phone unless you've got a Microsoft Windows Mobile device, such as the Samsung Blackjack, Palm Treo 750, Cingular 3125 and T-Mobile's MDA. In that case, you'll probably need to change it manually. All you need to know to do that can be found here. Time's a tickin!

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Phone Smarts

Joni sent me this blurb a few weeks ago announcing this revolutionary new service that AT&T was offering called Homezone so I looked at it, thought it was pretty cool and was all set to write about it. The basic idea is that it allows you to use your cell phone to program your DVR and to download video on demand selections to it. But something got me thinking that this wasn't all that advanced. Then a few days later Verizon announces a hook-up with TiVo allowing you to do the same thing for $1.99 per month. All of this got me thinking and exploring, and I realized that all of this is something that you can do already (provided that your carrier allows you to.)

To program your TiVo remotely, all you need is a phone running an HTML browser. So with any cell phone running WinMobile 5 & 6 or Palm OS (Blackjack, Treo 680, Treo 700w, Treo 700p, Treo 750, Cingular 2125, Cingular 3125, Cingular 8525, T-Mobile Dash, T-Mobile MDA or T-Mobile SDA) Symbian Phones (Nokia 6682, Nokia N80IE, Nokia N73, Nokia E62, Nokia E70) or any Java browser based phone that allows you to go directly to www pages rather than rerouting you through a WAP page; go to http://www3.tivo.com/tivo-tco/index.do . You'll need to have a Tivo Online Central login and password already set up, or you'll need to do it then and there. Either way, as long an your phone can handle the web page, you can do the online scheduling exactly the same as you would from your PC or laptop, and you don't need to pay anyone anything additional.

So in the end, the Homezone and the Verizon Wireless/TiVo products are pretty cool, but before you go chasing them down to pay for the services, check to see if it's something that your phone can already do! Chances are that you have mobile capabilities that you weren't aware of.

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Phone Smarts

Even though it was only four blocks from our office, I couldn't make it over to the GDC Mobile conference. From the sound of it though, there was some good stuff going on. Thanks to our friend Paul (who is in the games biz) from MyPhone Rocks.com for summarizing and updating all of the goings on.

From the sound of it, between Nokia's renewed N-Gage initiative and the introduction of 3G + graphics processor enabled handsets, there should be a revolutionary evolution of mobile games coming. Nokia's previous games were sweet, and the entire N-Gage platform was underrated.. If you've ever played Pathway to Glory or High Seize head to head over Bluetooth or on Arena you know what I'm talking about. (And if you haven't, we still have a few.) I'm very, very excited about FIFA 2008 coming for the N-Gage platform. FIFA 2005 for the N-Gage was hands down the best mobile sports game ever (1)

The big gating factor here is going to be twofold: can game developers get their head around making games that maximize the advantages of mobile phones (i.e. that you ARE mobile, that it is inherently a communication device, and that it will never be a PS3 or XBOX 360), and will the carriers allow this to flourish without demanding multiple pounds of flesh in ransom?

What's my dream mobile game? Well here's one, imagine that you're sitting there doing whatever (waiting for yet another FAA delayed flight on United, as in it's not their fault so you don't get any comp tickets for the wasted hours) and you decide that you want to play some Madden. Now, Madden will always suck on Mobile Phones in comparison to the console, and there's no way around that. (2) But how about this: you can enter a game being played by two people on consoles via XBOX Live and play as a single offensive or defensive lineman where you only need to block or shed the block to impact the game? Maybe? Kind of Cool? Or how about logging in to you account and putting your Free Safety through agility drills and strength exercises so that you end up with some freakish combo of Ray Lewis, Chuck Cecil and Ronnie Lott that you use the next time you're on your console.

1. Although I kind of cheated, I would always play the 2005 version of Real Madrid, which on paper/silicon is the soccer equivalent of the '27 Yankees or 80's Lakers.

2. In fact I've played EA Mobile's Madden, and I still can't figure out how to catch a pass, and my running back can never run inside. But my defense is ferocious. Plus if you have large digits like me, your going to have issues.

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Observed

This isn't exactly a new concept, the idea has been around a couple of years now when people wanted to figure out other uses for having GPS capabilities in your cell phone. The idea was simple, you're walking by a restaurant or store that you frequent and boom, just like that a coupon or advertisement of some sort is sent to your cell phone as a text message.

Cellfire is the company that provides coupons for you to places like Hollywood Video, TGIFs and Omaha Steaks. All you have to do is use your cell phone to get them. (Note: While it is free be aware that it will cost you in a currency you might not be thinking about: data. So be sure to have the right plan that will help you reap the benefits of getting coupons on your cell phone.)

Overall, the thought of showing a code on your cell phone screen to get a discount on something is appealing. What's not so appealing is how much longer a line will become as a result of the checkout person having absolutely no idea what you're showing them.

 

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Somethin' To Talk About

It wasn't long ago that receiving a cell phone call was the equivalent of the President of the United States receiving a call on the "red phone." Immediately, we dropped whatever we were doing and lunged for the cell phone to take what must be an incredibly important call. And once that call was received, we spoke a succinctly and concisely as possible to "keep it short" and keep the phone bill down?

Where did we go wrong? Today, I take on average 4 calls a day from my 4 and 6 year old, who find calling daddy about as entertaining as the next episode of Sponge Bob. They haven't quite reached the prank call level yet, but they are close. And right around 4:45, I get the familiar and inevitable "Hi Honey, when do you think you'll be coming home?" calls. And on top of that the work calls. "You weren't answering your e-mail so I thought I'd try you on your cell".

No longer the crisis phone, let's just say.

Well kudos to our man Jack Bauer who takes an "old school" approach to his cell phone calls. Last night's episode was a prime example. In the span of 9 seconds (don't try this at home) Jack rattled off a real beaut:

Bill I got a situation. Logan’s plan didn’t work so I came back to the consulate to talk to Markoff myself. Before I could get any information from him (gasp) I was discovered. I barricaded myself in his office my I don’t know how much more time I’ve got. I know Bill I’m calling because you need to call the White House and advise them. I’m not going anywhere until Markoff tells me how to find Grdanko Get back to you soon as I got something.

My plot was foiled, I broke international laws, I took a hostage, now I'm trapped, oh by the way the White house should know, help!

There is more action packed into that 9 seconds of a cell phone call than I've received on my cell phone since I bought it 2 years ago! And Jack even conserved his minutes.

Jack, you da man.

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Observed

Verizon announced two new text messaging plans, which if you tend to send a lot of text messages, it's the way to go. Better yet you can upgrade your texting options at any time without having to change your plan or contract term. The best bet of the two new plans is the $15 plan that gives you 1,500 messages for $15 (that's about a cent a message) plus unlimited IN network messaging. It includes picture, text and even video messages.

The easiest way to figure out which plan is right for you is to check out your bill and see how many texts you send currently. If you send/receive 150 messages to 200 messages to people with different carriers, sign up for the $5 plan - it gets you 250 messages to anyone regardless what network the recipients use. That's a huge bargain especially if you're text circle is to people, who have service other than Verizon Wireless. Without a texting plan, you're paying 15 cents a message to get the word out to those people. One month of that kind of behavior and you and a friend could have gone to see a movie instead.

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In The Know

T-Mobile unveiled it's latest music-centric cell phone, the Nokia 5300, at a Rockin' in Rome themed party. The music phone will playback music in AAC (Apple's music format), MP3, and WMA (Microsoft's music format). Unfortunately, it does adhere to all the Digital Rights Management schemes so you'll only be able to play back music that you buy on the phone, legally purchased music that you still have available rights to play on the cell phone, and of course any MP3s you create from burning a CD. What is nice about this cell phone is that it does come with a 1GB MicroSD card so you can store about 200 songs on it.

The Nokia 5300 also comes with stylish earbud headphones so you can still take calls when listening to tunes, a Mini USB-to-USB cable for synching music from your computer with your cell phone and finally our favorite a 2.5mm headset jack adapter so you can use your own headset with it. This cell phone is sure to be one that's lots of fun to use, just check out the main screen.

We'll have an expert review of this music phone available soon and if you want to know when it's available, just click here.

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In The Know

The 24 recap:

Jack uses a Sprint Treo 700wx to call ex-President Charles Logan. Jack ditches the Treo and continues to use his stolen Nextel i880 with no explanation. Jack, why no love for the smartphone? Do you find WinMobile as frustrating as others? Could we see a scene of Jack blowing up at the Treo screaming his trademark "Who are you working for?" Please?

Jack flies to Logan's ranch where Logan offers to help Jack, President Palmer the lesser, and the country in order to redeem his soul. Logan is now sporting a beard representing his journey into the political wilderness, much like Al Gore after the 2000 election. I wonder if Logan will pack on 20lbs and cameo at the Oscars in 2025? Logan demands to be taken to the Russian consulate where he will extract the information on Dimitri Gredenko's whereabouts from the Russian consular officer. Sweet, we're going to get to see Jack violate consular sovereignty again! By the time this series has run it's course, ex-commie diplomats everywhere will hate Jack. Can we have him break into the Venezuelan consulate soon? I just want to hear Hugo Chavez babble on for the next two years about it. I think Hugo would start to believe that it actually happenned.

Reed Pollock(1) has Tom Lennox bound and gagged in a boiler room after a clash of the titans level scuffle between what might be two of the least intimidating men on the planet.(2) Reed then gets the assassin (who looks like Everett McGill's illegitimate son) admitted to the White House. Bizarro Everett McGyvers a bomb out of two Marks-A-Lot pens and a mini-cassette recorder.(3)

Morris is an alcoholic, and may or may not be drunk. Who knows, who cares. The fact that Fayed or Gredenko haven't nuked CTU yet is killing me. I really can't stand any of the characters there. Can we resurrect Nina? I'm thinking that Morris and Fayed might be long lost brothers, they both share the same haircut. Morris sucks (and how is he working at all after taking an auger bit to the scapula?), Chloe was better in Little Miss Sunshine, and Milo's best work was four years ago as the guy who gets Claire to suck his toes in Six Feet Under.

The mini-cassette bomb blows up just after Assad notices it leaking explosive ink and pulls a Clint Eastwood and dives to save the president. "And down goes Citadel, down goes Citadel!"(4) And there we have the feel good lesson for the week: that even terrorists would lay down their lives for our president if we could just meet them at their level and feel their pain. Sniff, I'm feeling my inner Bill Clinton and Rodney King sharing a moment. The world is so beautiful.

Palmer (and DB Woodside's horrific acting) is now unconscious. No loss there. And VP Noah Daniels will be taking over. Nice to see that Powers Boothe has completely crossed over and joined John Voight, Ronny Cox and Gary Busey in Bad Guy Actor's Guild. There's a good buck in being a member of that outfit.

1. Reed Pollock is played by Chad Lowe. Which leads me to wonder, does he identify himself more often as Rob Lowe's brother or Hillary Swank's ex-husband? How about his agent, which one does he use when pitching Chad for a Lifetime or SciFi Channel original movie appearance? Which one does Chad have on his business card? Maybe both?

(Read more)

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Observed

Thanks to Engadget and blogspot for finding this. It looks like Cingular has heard the cries of Blackjack smartphone owners regarding less than stellar battery performance. Go to this link and enter your phone number and IMEI, the new Blackjack extended battery ($50 value) should show up in 2 - 4 weeks. It's thicker than the old battery, and extends out and beyond the area where the standard battery sits. It's basically like a bigger cover that rides up the back of the phone and holds nearly twice the battery size. So you should expect to get at least a day's use out of the cell phone on a single charge now.

Nice to see Cingular step up for it's customers who are undoubtedly using both voice and data, and not getting what they thought they would.

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In The Know

Now that American Idol is in full swing again, you can still vote by cell phone. Using your AT&T/Cingular cell phone enters you into a chance to win up to $1,000,000. You can get more info about it here. While this type of contests are fun and interactive, you're still being charged for the messages you send and receive, so make sure you've got the right text messaging plan so you won't be shocked when the monthly cell phone bill comes.

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In The Know

Well, not literally. This article discusses how watches are losing acceptance with the younger generations because so many other devices display the time. It caught my eye because I've never really adopted watches, even before they had so many portable devices that told the time. While the cell phone has not replaced a watch for me (since I never adopted one in the first place), it has replaced other time-telling devices in my life, such as alarm clocks and even travel clocks. I love the extra space I have on my nightstand and the slightly lighter load I have when I travel because my cell phone has taken over that functionality.

How else have cell phones lightened your load?

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Somethin' To Talk About

Last night's episode seemed a bit overly emotional and I can't help but wonder if this sudden change of character is to help Kiefer get an Emmy for his portrayal of Jack Bauer. But I digress.

The oddest moment came when Jack finally confronts his father. The man basically gave a confession (how much of it is actually true is questionable) about his involvement in the latest plot to destroy America and Jack abandons technology completely? How many times has he used the speaker on his cell phone to relay information to CTU? C'mon Jack, are you falling asleep at the wheel?

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Observed

Seeing as it's Valentine's Day, I've decided to reminiscence about all the phones I've loved before. I'm a loyalist by nature and have only truly loved a few cell phones. Don't get me wrong, I've flirted with many phones and have become immediately enamored with a pretty case or a slick interface. I tend to fall hard for something that works like a charm and does what it says it's going to do.

But what about when it doesn't? We've all been there: made a commitment to a cell phone that we thought had all the things we want only to find once the honeymoon phase is over that our phone has issues and not the issues we knowingly signed up for. It's a problem, which is why we often find ourselves looking for a newer model.

What's the answer? Well, to be honest, like romance you're going to have starry-eyed days filled with tulips and chocolate truffles and then, of course, you're going to have moments when you want to break up with your phone. The only thing you can really do is figure out what you absolutely must have, what you can learn to live with and what you know would drive you crazy faster than Ricky Bobby can complete a lap around the track. Once you figure that out, picking the phone you'll love and show off to friends, family and any stranger that will pay attention gets a lot easier.

Me, I personally love small phones with fabulous call quality, reliable battery life and a tactile keyboard (remember, I've got that text messaging addiction). The cell phones that drive me crazy are slow to power-up, cut callers off when two people speak simultaneously, and have a plethora of features and master none.

So how about you, when it comes to your cell phone relationship what are your deal breakers?

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Somethin' To Talk About

I'm always excited when 24 episodes appear back-to-back, it's just a little bit more engaging. Last night's episodes were no different. And, of course, I'm left with more questions than answers. Though I'm beginning to understand what made Jack, well Jack. He doesn't seem to fall too far from the tree, he only landed on another side of the law.

After last night's episode, I'm beginning to understand a little better why CTU is constantly infiltrated by a mole. (BTW, who do you think will be the mole this season?) For goodness sake, they bring in the man who confessed to being involved in President Palmer's assassination (that's the first President Palmer) and they don't think to take his cell phone? Yes, he's dead but his phone still works. Come on! Even Phillip was smart enough to erase incriminating contacts in Graem's phonebook. But, of course, what Philip doesn't seem to realize is that just because you erase a phone number in a cell phone's contact list doesn't necessarily mean it's erased forever.

Remember: CTU does have the power to upload every call ever made on a cell phone, I'm sure Chloe and Morris can figure out how to retrieve a recently deleted number. Or here's a thought, why don't they just run Graem's cell phone records?

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Observed

If you've been holding off buying a T-Mobile Dash or a Treo 750 because you don't want to be left off the Windows Mobile 6 train, then worry no more. According to an article over at Phonesoop, T-Mobile will offer a downloadable OS upgrade for the T-Mobile Dash and Palm will offer a similar service for owners of the Treo 750. On the Treo 750 note, there is also supposed to be a forthcoming firmware upgrade for the Treo 750 that will boost it to HSDPA speeds. So Treo 750 owners, you've got a lot to look forward to in the next few months.

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In The Know

At a pre-Grammy party at the Avalon in Los Angeles it was announced that Justin Timberlake would be getting his own Verizon VCAST channel this year. So coming this March to your Verizon Wireless cell phone will be JT in all his glory, singing (ripping Britney) sometimes wearing fake tats and talking about music and fashion.

Billboard had a nice spin-rag article on the process that led to this; and while I couldn't care less about JT-TV, the fact that someone finally got this possbility is very encouraging for this space.

One thing I must ad, at age 36, I just missed the whole NSYNC/boy band fad by a couple years, so JT has little to no gravitas to me as a musician. However, the career that Mr. Timberlake has made for himself on the Hollywood starlet scene is becoming the stuff of legend. Spears (pre crash & burn), Diaz (just past her peak), Jessica Biel and now Scarlett Johansen. Perhaps JV-TV should be expanded to include JT's social life, as he's on his way to joining the ranks of Erroll Flynn, Richard Burton, Sinatra and Heffner. That's a career. Just sell downloadable movies of JT and Scarlett Johansen eating Pastrami Dogs at Pink's and you'd have a hit!

1. No, not in a social development sense, just pure business. I'll leave it to Nicholas Negroponte to comment on the social impact of JT-TV and corresponding misuse of technology.

2.I'll always know him more for getting the best of Britney Spears and making what looks like an awful movie called Alpha Dog to which I was subjected to the commercials for about 35 times while streaming episodes from NBC.com. Yes, I'm in full boycott mode when it comes to Alpha Dog.

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Somethin' To Talk About

Last November we blogged about the Sundance Shorts to soon be available on cell phones. Sundance Organization reached out to five directors to debut a short film for cell phones at GSM World, which is happening this week in Barcelona, and the directors delivered. Too bad the videos won't be available for the rest of us (who aren't attending GSM world) to see until Thursday of this week.

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Somethin' To Talk About

Barcelona, Spain is normally a top 20 destination anyway.1 But if you're a phone geek like me, The 3GSM Conference in Barcelona in February is rapidly becomming the Berkshire Hathway Annual Shareholders Meeting of cell phones. Unveiled tody was an avalanche of phones running the new Windows Mobile 6:

 - HP iPaq 500/510/514: It's a no-QWERTY keyboard standard 12 key phone running Windows Mobile 6 Standard. Mostly intended for enterprise customers who already buy servers, desktops, laptops and everything else from HP, it rounds out their offerring with one more "trusted" device. The big plus is that it will supposedly have 6.5 hours of talk-time and built in Wi-Fi (though not 6.5 hours with Wi-Fi running) and Bluetooth. It will be Quad Band GSM/EDGE but no 3G. One other neato have: text to speech for reading text and email messages (though who needs an SMS read to them?)

- HTC Vox/S710: This is a long rumored/hot-buzz phone that's finally hit (see photo below.) While it sports a killer form factor and lots of the usual features, it's lack of tri-band 3G might make DOA as far as many are concerned. And actually, this goes for all of the WM6 phones - no 3G? What's the point?

- Asus Aries: Now this has me excited. Engadget Mobile has nice rundown of the Aries. But in a nutshell, it has all of the must-haves that everyone outside of the Carrier/Big-5 complex has been clamoring for: Fast Processor (520mhz!,) WinMobile 6, and Tri-Band 3G (850/1900/2100) coupled with Quad-Band GSM & EDGE, 2MP Camera and a slim for factor! So who is Asus? They're a very reputible computer builder, in fact they are the ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) who builds all of the Apple MacBook Pro and MacBooks as well as the Sony Notebooks. They've been making a quiet push into the mobile phone/PDA market for the last couple years, and this looks like their gauntlet to throw down. This phone will most likely have 0 carrier support here in the US. But with all of that connectivity, who cares? Just buy a slim flip from Cingular like the SYNC, the RAZR V3XX or Nokia N75 (when it finally gets here) and swap your SIM over when you need the full boat.

And if I might offer one bit of suggestion to Nokia: could you please follow Asus's cue when it comes to putting Tri-Band 3G in a phone? You're killing me with the 2100mhz only 3G phones. I would think you could better establish a US market for your high-end phones (N80, N93, N93i, N76, E90, and so on) if you would offer them with functionality that we could use. What is the point of opening stores on Michigan Avenue in Chicago and Mid-Town Manhattan if they're just glorified museums to technologies that only work in Europe?

1. I'm not sure why I felt the need to specify Spain, but it was probably just to avoid someone's snarky comment that there is a Barcelona, Idaho or Texas or any other state that has hamlets named after European cities. I just discovered that there is a Mexico, NY which has me wondering if Michael Vick (here, and here)has a vacation home there.

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Observed

Valentine's Day is this week. In anticipation of the holiday, you might be getting e-mails alerting you about the lure of Mobile Love. No, this is not some new hot website for love on the run or a twist on the mobile-centric Lava Life dating service. Instead, it's an opportunity for companies to let you know that you can send those special messages either from your cell phone to someone's e-mail address or from a computer to someone's cell phone.

This is not a new concept. The ability to send text messages from computers to cell phones has been around for at least a couple of years. So if your cell phone doesn't support text messaging, but your sweetie is a big fan of text messaging, you can still send a text.

Regardless of how you're going to send that message (I'm a big fan of personalized M&Ms), I'm curious what would be the text message you'd want to receive most on Valentine's Day?

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Somethin' To Talk About

Microsoft has been working on an update to Windows Mobile 5 for some time now with the codename: Crossbow. And over the last week or so the unofficial announcement was made. Now today at 3GSM in Barcelona they finally made the official announcement, releasing. . .  Windows Mobile 6. [Quick digression, ever notice how the codenames of MS products are always cooler than the official name? Longhorn became Vista and now Crossbow becomes Windows Mobile 6. Those guys in Redmond are real wordsmiths. They might consider ripping off another page from Apple's playbook and just releasing their products with the codename]

So what do you get in WM6? Well first you get 3 versions:

1. Windows Mobile 6 Professional (what used to be named Pocket PC Phone Edition)

2. Windows Mobile 6 Standard (formerly Smartphone)

3. Windows Mobile 6 Classic (Pocket PC, for PDA's with no phone.)

For one, I'm not sure why they bothered with Classic . . . is there any market left for PDA's? I'm thinking no, unless you count Nokia's effor to revive the sector via the N800.

As for what Windows Mobile 6 gives you over Windows Mobile 5, here's the quick rundown:

 - Email now supports HTML. (Good I guess. Though now my phone will also receive those annoying spam mails hawking some penny stock.)

 - Windows Live support. (I've no idea what good this will do anyone yet. In fact I don't know anyone who uses Windows Live functions now on their desktop/laptop.)

 - Updated MS Office Mobile (Word, Excel, PPT) software. (Please just make sure they actually work. This is one of the buggiest features in prior versions.)

 - Integration with Vista. (I'm actually surprised by MS's ability to align the launch of this OS with Vista. I'm eager to see how well these are aligned.)

 - Saving of call history to vCards. (This is actually really, really cool. Except if you're someone trading insider info. So Sam Waksal and Martha Stewart probably won't like this feature.)

This is all culled from their press release, etc. I'll be eager to get one in my hands and put it through the test. Better yet, I hope Jack Bauer gets one around hour 17 this season.

All in all, Microsoft's steady march towards phone domination contiues. Based on the early rumors of what the next gen phone OS holds (code named Photon) and the arrival of 3G, I'd say they're not going anywhere.

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Phone Smarts

and we are governed by the rule of law, not the politics of fear...

...then what the heck is a stubborn, but law-abiding citizen and CTU agent like Morris O'Brian doing driving his car while talking on his cell phone? If anyone ever wonders about the importance of responsible, hands-free driving, take a hard look at what happened to poor Morris. Clearly Morris let the politics of fear overwhelm the better judgment to abide by the rule of (hands-free) driving laws, which according to Harrison's math, would have gone into effect in the State of California roughly 11 years ago in 24 time.

Due to being highly-distracted by his cell phone, he was unable to evade an ambush set up for him by Fayed's network of criminal, terrorist masterminds. What's worse, when facing down the barrel of a semi-automatic pistol, Morris flailed like a wounded pigeon and dropped his cell phone into the passenger seat. Jack Bauer's cell phone wouldn't have taken that.

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Observed

With pitchers and catchers reporting in just over a week (starting Feb 14th for some teams, you can see all of the dates here,) I thought I'd throw a little baseball related cell phone news your way.

A guy who works here at Lets Talk was down in Vegas at the Venetian two weeks ago and spotted none other than Pete Rose manning an autograph table. Sad to say that the hit king wasn't getting too many takers. But then again a lot of people under thirty might not be able to tell Pete Rose from Pete Rozelle. But I would think that in the action capitol of the world that the whole "throwing down a few bones on the occasional game" tiff wouldn't put anyone off. But this isn't the news, the big news was that Mr. 4,256 hits/3,562 games/14,053 AB's/10,328 outs (all MLB records he holds) was rocking the Dolce & Gabbana RAZR! Pete, I didn't know you were so glam!

Unfortunately our intrepid man from Lets Talk couldn't squeeze the courage to snap a photo for all of us, so I did my best to convey the peculiar sight this must have been.

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Observed

Today I think I found the king of all "free-timers". This kid WANTS you to call his cell phone. Oh, to be young and bored again!

Mom, Dad, you might want to check out Nextel's Free Incoming Minutes plan...

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Observed

This doesn't have much to do with phones . . . in fact nothing except for me to say that this is one of the times that I'm disappointed that I don't live in Europe. If I was in the UK or Ireland, well I'd be cold, but I could hit Ladbrokes on my cell phone and slap down a bet on the Super Bowl. If it wasn't for the nimble maneuverings of the Las Vegas casino industry to get internet gambling banned in the US (and don't for a minute believe that this actually has anything to do with morality or protecting US citizens from the evils of gambling) I could do this with ease. But I can't, and that's the breaks. So instead I'm calling my shot and giving you the freebie: Take the Chicago Bears and the points. In fact I'm taking the Bears to win outright where $100 gets you $300.

Why will the Bears win?

1. Brian Urlacher - he's better than Troy Polamalu and he will do the same to Peyton Manning as Polamalu did last year, darting in and out of disguised blitzes and suddenly appearing where Manning thought he wasn't

2. The Colts soft receivers - Chicago's D hits very, very, painfully hard. And they strip the ball well. Indy's receivers are soft.

3. Best D always wins - this has been a Super Bowl axiom since, oh, 1967. I was finally convinced of this forever after watching the Bucs dismantle the Raiders a few years ago.

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Observed

This company, ZINC Imaging, has come up with a way to print pictures on the fly via a portable printer and special paper that doesn't need ink. It's an interesting idea, especially for cell phones.

But in case you don't know it yet, many cell phones support printing pictures captured in memory without having to connect to a computer via a technology called PictBridge. It's not as cool as paper that doesn't need ink, but it is currently available.

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Somethin' To Talk About

In Sacramento, a new Bill was submitted that would allow you to keep your cell phone when you change carriers. Senate Bill 158 is designed to allow consumers to keep their cell phones even when they change carries. Sounds good? Yeah?

Sorry, I don't think this one is going to fly. It's for the simple reason that here, in America, there are different networks: GSM and CDMA. Cell phones do not work on all networks. Yes, there were some hybrid phones a while back that worked on TDMA (a network that has been slowly disappearing) and GSM. But those handsets are few and far between.

The bottom line is that if you have a cell phone that uses Sprint PCS (CDMA) service, you can't use it with Cingular (GSM) service. If, on the other hand, you have Cingular service now and want to switch to T-Mobile (GSM) service you can. Both use the GSM network and store all your info on a SIM card. If you want to take your Cingular cell phone to T-Mobile service you can do that now. You just need to get the unlock code for your cell phone, get a SIM card from T-Mobile and insert it into your cell phone.

There are far better Bill's about cell phones that I could think of that should be passed that would actually work and help consumers. For example, let's take a look at all those additional taxes and service fees.

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In The Know

Not many of us are fortunate enough to be going to the SuperBowl this Sunday. But those of us who are and have Verizon Wireless service should be able to rely on their cell phones to stay in contact with friends both in and out of the stadium. The company is setting up two mobile cell sites nearby to handle the increased capacity expected at the game.

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Somethin' To Talk About

From a cell phone perspective there were a few new items in last night's 24. It seems that if you call a certain number when using a Samsung MM-A900 and press ** that enables CTU to download your call and browser history. That's cool, but couldn't they have just hacked the tower and forced it to call all numbers that had activity within a certain radius? Then they would have seen the guy answer his phone, had the number;and not had Walid suffer a beatdown. Am I missing something in how mobile phone technology works?

It also seems that a subtle shift is on in the 24 world, Jack is the only guy on the show still using an iDen/Nextel cell phone (his trusty, stolen Nextel i880), everyone else seems to have shifted to Sprint/CDMA. To wit: Ton Lennox (White House Chief of Staff played by Peter McNicol, AKA the annoying lawyer on Ally McBeal) has what appears to be a Sanyo SCP-8400, the shady guy in the detention facility/grade school has an aforementioned Samsung MM-A900 and the spineless National Security Advisor looks like she has a Fusic (seriously, you can't stare down Peter McNicol? I think Peter Dinklage looks tougher). How tight is the resolution on that A900? I mean the guy was perusing underground sites written in Arabic script! I'm no expert, but I'd think it's not easy to read even on a 240x320 QVGA screen.

Last thoughts - I can't wait for Jack to inflict two years of Chinese prison pain on Graham. Should make Dr Romano wish his arm hadn't grown back. Jack's got a lot of chits on his brother: cooler job, the obivous respect of his father, prior knowledge of his wife, possible fatherhood of his son, and hair. Hour 6 should be tense.

 

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Observed

New Jersey has approved a bill that would fine bicycle riders who speak on a cell phone. Fines could be as much as $250. Of course, you can still use a headset. I want to know why someone riding a bicycle would want to be talking on a cell phone anyway - even stopped at a light?

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Somethin' To Talk About

OK, how can I resist jumping on the 24 bandwagon? While Harrison and Joni have taken their love of the show to the point of obsession, I'd like to take a different spin. Let's not admire from a distance; let's jump right in.

A few of you may remember Season 5 when Debbie's cell phone rang with a phone number displayed on the caller ID. Turns out Harrison and Joni are not the only 2 people obsessed with the show. The phone number, 310-597-3781,started receiving calls immediately, was occasionally answered by cast and crew members, and received over 80,000 calls in the first week! The cell phone number is still active, and has re-appeared throughout the next several seasons, including twice already this season. No surprise, the voice mailbox , which answers:

"The mailbox belonging to Nextel phone for 24 is full. It cannot accept any more messages. Please try again later. Goodbye."

is full.

Yes, this is a bit of old news, however, important context for what I consider to be the most exciting part of the new season. Jack's weasel brother Graham's cell phone number made an appearance Monday:

818-555-0175

Oh the possibilities for voicemail messages...

Hey Graham, get that dorky bluetooth headset out of your ear! You're in your freakin' house, pick up the phone!

Hey Graham, is that your brother's number on your wife's MyFaves list?

Hey Graham, is my cell phone getting bad reception or do you have a bag over your head?

Dr. Romano, please report to ER room 2, code red

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Observed

Kris talks about how complicated cell phones are becoming as more and more features are added in this post. If he's really hot for a basic phone, he should consider the uber-simple Samsung Jitterbug. It just makes and receives calls. Actually, the model featured below can only receive incoming calls or place calls to 3 pre-programmed numbers. Is that still too complicated Kris? (Burn!)

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Observed

Last night's episode of 24 was riddled with all the juicy drama details that should make this a pretty good or an over-the-top season. Either way, I like it. I think the biggest shock for me was that Jack Bauer has a father and a brother (I won't give too many details in case the episode is still on your DVR). I know it's obvious that he must have a family, but for some reason I always thought that Jack was sort of created like the Terminator.

I digress, there were a few cell phone details that caught my attention. I really want to know more about Jack's service. I mean he's gotta be totally tapped in. How is it when a nuclear bomb goes off and CTU can't seem to reach any of their backup teams, Jack can make a call and get right through to Bill? Now, that's great service. I would imagine a bomb of that magnitude would probably knock out service. And let's just forget for a second that the networks would be so overloaded with people using cell phones to get through to friends and family that calls would have a hard time getting through even if local networks were working.

The next oddity to me is that Karen was able to get through on her cell phone to CTU from the bunker (which has gotta be far enough underground that it wouldn't be affected by any kind of bomb. I'm not a geologist, but that's gotta be pretty deep underground.). How does she have service down there? Many cell phones barely work in a basement. But if the year really is 2018 as Harrison estimates maybe there is cell phone service underground. I guess that would mean there's also cell phone service on subways. I don't even want to think about that.

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Observed

Prada joins the ranks of designers Dolce & Gabbana, Diane von Furstenberg, and others by announcing a branded cell phone. The LG Prada cell phone looks ultra stylish; clearly worthy of the company's label. I hope it comes with a Prada case since that cell phone is bound to attract its fair share of fingerprints. Unfortunately, we probably won't see it in the US any time soon.

The real question is if there's any technological benefit to buying a fashionista cell phone (complete with a pricey label)? Typically, not so much. You're not going to get better reception or have cooler phone features, or even fashion-related apps (I wouldn't mind a shoe- and clothing-size conversion program for those quick shopping trips across the pond). You will get what you're paying for, however, a label and decidedly more stylish handset worthy of conversation starters and admiring glances from onlookers.

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Somethin' To Talk About

The other day a friend asked about cell phones blowing up when in use at a gas station. I chuckled because I didn't realize people still thought about that. Anyway, this article clarifies it's an urban legend. I guess that's the thing about urban legends, they don't really ever disappear completely.

Topics:

Somethin' To Talk About

Fox's 24 came out with a bang last night. By my count Jack Bauer only iced 2.5 bad guys: one of Fayed's henchmen, Assad's guy who he took out with firewood - even if he lived the blast from the Hellfire missiles finished him off while unconscious, and I'll credit him with an assist on the dude that Assad shanked in the knee. Not bad for just two hours out of a Chinese prison. I expect Jack to triple that pace tonight.

Mr Bauer (I'm going with the New York Times style today) also managed to begin his annual rescue of the Nextel brand, which led to several thoughts. For one, I think this is supposed to take place around 2018 (1) & (2). So, we're 11 years from now, and Sprint still hasn't integrated the Nextel brand with Sprint. Either that or they took my advice and sold the network to Bain, Cerebus, Blackstone, Texas Pacific or one of the other behemoth private equity firms and sold themselves to Vodafone. Next, Mr. Bauer steals a Nextel i880 cell phone along with some working stiff's(3) vintage 1983 Chevy Caprice Classic. So this cell phone will still work in 2018? That's rugged. Add to that the fact that Assad the Terrorist (I wonder if he has his own Amex commercials on Al-Jazeera) also has a Nextel (4) and I'm left with the impression that Nextel (or Sprint) has significantly dropped it's credit requirements.

I'm being wise here, but if Sprint is going to sponsor the show, why not product place a cell phone that's more advanced? Jack did use the built in GPS to enter the long-lat of Assad's house (need to try someones Nextel to see if that's an option) so that was cool; though unlikely to be repeated in the real world unless you're lost in the Sierra and trying to find a food drop. I'm hoping that the guy who Jack swiped his cell phone from will have read Dave's post about calling your carrier ASAP when your cell phone is missing and Jack will get a new cell phone from CTU. This should be an iPhone killer without any of the crippleware. Given Jack's track record, I'm expecting a device with Deep-Blue level computing in a PDA tied to Iridium satellite-like coverage and Clearwire/WiMAX type download speeds. I'll set the over-under at three weeks from tonight.

Lastly, Jack's old cell phone is going to be pissed when he sees this season. His Nextel i860 still has it's own MySpace page and is quietly waiting for the call from his agent. I expect the i860 to join Fayed's cabal in a jealous rage. Hopefully the i860 will figure in the plot to take out Chloe, who is rapidly becoming the most annoying character on TV. Her weep-lust for Jack just drags down each episode. She takes her rightful place alongside Adrienne Balboa and Gina (Sonny Crockett's part-time lover on the vice squad) from Miami Vice as "Weepy characters whose death would add more depth to the show."

(Read more)

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Observed

Stopped by the SanDisk booth at CES, and I was shown the V-Mate. To tell you the truth it was a little underwhelming at first, it looks just like another multi-format memory card reader-writer (like the kind at Fry's that they would advertise for $19.99 then always be out of.) I took a photo of the unit, see below.

After talking to the booth rep and playing with it for a few minutes, the true genius of this device for cell phone owners hit me. It's so easy it's laughable:

1. Just plug your video signal into the SanDisk V-Mate (Cable, Satellite, Terrestrial antenna, DVD player, VCR, TiVo/DVR, etc) via a composite cable (aka RCA.)

2. Put your cell phone or other portable device's memory card (PSP, PDA, PMP, Nokia 770 or Nokia N800) into the SanDisk V-Mate. It supports: SD, SDHC, miniSD, miniSDHC, microSD (aka Trans-Flash), microSDHC, RS-MMC (DV), MMCplus, MMCmobile, Memory Stick/PRO/Duo/Pro Duo - not sure there is a format on earth left to include.

3. Record. You can program the SanDisk V-Mate like a TiVo via it's own GUI, based on channel, date, start stop times, daily weekly repeats, etc. You can also just slap a DVD into the player and start recording. (Not sure how this comes out in terms of the Macrovision copy protection, I'll let you know when I try it.)

4. Remove the card when it's done. The spec sheet says you'll get 3.6 hours per 1GB in medium quality (544 kbps). But more likely is that you'll use (especially if you're a Nokia S60 phone owner) the 3GPP/H.263 @ 288kbps for 6.7 hours. The recordings come out in MP4, 3GP or 3G2 (I'm assuming you set that before recording) and the codes are MPEG-4 Simple Profile (i.e. no Dolby 5.1, etc) and H.263 @ 640x480 and 30fps. And for those abroad, it's in NTSC and PAL.

5. Put the card in your cell phone and start watching.

If the specs and all are correct, then this is now the flat-out easiest way to get your videos onto your cell phone. If anyone has read me before, I'm very big on this. Yes the screen is small, but do you really need a laptop sized screen to watch The Big Lebowski, Animal House or Beerfest (most underrated movie of 2006 by the way) for the 40th time? It beats watching the abysmal refuse they show on every airline except Jet Blue.

MSRP is $129.99 and the web-street price is already at $99.99. So for about the price of similar functioning software for your PC, you can just skip all the monkeying and just record.

Note: this post in no way endorses any unauthorized recording or exchanging of copyright protected materials. Any use of the SanDisk V-Mate should occurr within the boundaries of fair-use :)

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New at CES

Even though your cell phone might play music, chances are you're probably carrying a cell phone and an MP3 player. Jabra seems to think there's no reason to carry two pairs of headsets also. If your MP3 player has Bluetooth in it you can use the BT 8010 Bluetooth stereo headsets to listen to tunes on your MP3 player or take/make calls on your cell phone.

Here's the catch: Many MP3 players don't yet have Bluetooth. So you'll need to get an accessory that can give your MP3 player this feature.

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New at CES

What's a tradeshow without a little something extra for your cell phone? We walked the floor in search of a few of our favorite things. Check out the photo gallery below. And, yes, that is a real Playboy Playmate: Shallan Meiers, September 2002.

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New at CES

Sony Ericsson had some interesting Bluetooth activities on display. One is a Bluetooth-enabled watch, which by all accounts while big was not as geeky as many of the techno watches we see, that interacts with your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone. Basically, your cell phone will alert your watch when you've got a new message and any incoming calls. But you can't take the call on your watch ala Inspector Gadget or James Bond.

The other application is actually kind of cool. Basically via this Bluetooth adapter that you plug into your receiver you can listen to music stored on your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone over your stereo speakers.

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New at CES

Plantronics has a few new Bluetooth headset options: one stereo headset for listening to music over your cell phone and your typical Bluetooth headset in not so typical cases:

The newest Pulsar in-ear stereo headset features A2DP technology that's found in some of the more music-centric cell phones such as the Chocolate. Basically, the technology lets you listen to your tunes in stereo and when a call comes in and you've got the headphones on you can also take your call in stereo as well. It's a good listening option so you're not so jarred going from stereo to mono. I don't know about you, but some calls I just don't need to take in stereo.

There are two new Discovery models the 655 and the 665. The 655 looks like you're carrying a pen in your pocket and gets its charge from a AAA battery while it sits in its case. While the 665 comes with a car charger (that plugs into the lighter) that lights up all lava-like so you know its charging. It's kind of groovy.

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New at CES

Ok, so this isn't being announced at CES, but it is being announced this week at Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Yep, it's Apple's iPhone and it looks pretty cool. According to Engadget press conference coverage, the iPhone essentially has the following:

• Runs on Mac OSX
• Syncs iTunes, Calendar, Contacts, E-Mail, photos and bookmarks all through iTunes
• 4GB ($499) or 8GBs ($599) of capacity depending on model
• 2-megapixel camera Quad-band GSM with EDGE (for high-speed date) service (Think: a world phone that works with Cingular)
• New form of a touchscreen display sans stylus
• 3.5-inch display
• Ambient light sensor (adjusts brightness to save battery)
• Widescreen video support
• WiFi and Bluetooth
• QWERTY Keyboard
• Real web surfing
• Available in June

A few comments: Like everyone else not at Macworld Expo, I haven't touched or seen the iPhone, but judging from the pics it is definitely a gorgeous device. However, I'm not drooling over it. Why not? First off, I'm all about cell phones. This is more of a pocketable multifunction device that you can use to make calls. Again, it looks sweet. It's also a first generation product... bound to have bugs. When it's a computer you're more willing to deal with crashes. When it's a phone, not so much.

The price point is about right, but I don't think this will be a mass market device and take off the way the iPod has. First, it's expensive and people don't like to pay a lot for a cell phone. Also, it lacks the 3G service already found on other Cingular phones, namely the LG CU500 and the Samsung Sync. Again, not a terrible thing, but considering it won't be available until June that's a definite drawback. How could you have all that super cool functionality that really requires the best high-speed data available and not make it so?

We'll just have to wait and see. Back to CES...

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New at CES

This isn't exactly CES news, but I wish I was home in San Francisco right now to be at MacWorld. Jobs just unveiled the mighty iPhone, and it looks like a beauty. A few immediate thoughts come to mind from reading the reports:

1) Glad they put a 3G radio in it, and I hope it has HSDPA. If so, the TV and Movie part of iTunes Music Store is going to be eating up more of my disposable income. Update: Looks like the 3G claim was premature. According to Engadget and CNET the iPhone only has EDGE. To tell you the truth, this changes my thinking on this device. It's now a somewhat overpriced and crippled device ($499.99 MSRP on 2yr contract for a 4GB, $599.99 for an 8GB, though you can count on us here at Lets Talk to improve on that deal when we start selling them.) Why even build it without 3G? I really don't get it. With 3G you have a device that offers access to iTunes Music Store anywhere you have coverage. Now you get a device that's pretty slow, even for email.

2) If anyone has been saving a business idea for convenient, disposable, cell phone screen wipes - well, here's your cue. That screen looks beautiful, but unless the proximity detector has a face grease inhibitor things could get streaky in a hurry.

3) Jobs finally brought the Newton back. This is definitely the Newton 2.0. I'm not crazy about the touch screen instead of keys concept. But like many things Apple, it will probably be better than I anticipate. But can someone just come out with a clip on thumb keyboard?

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New at CES

Like everyone else, I don't like sitting in traffic. In fact, I've been known to follow a few cars all turning the same way down a nearby street just to get out of it. I think to myself, "Maybe these folks all know some secret back roads" and that's gotta be better than sitting in traffic. Well, with the latest Traffic addition to TeleNav's GPS service for cell phones (available on Sprint service), I don't have to wonder anymore.

The idea here is to be able to do what we all want: Avoid traffic or get out of it if we're stuck in it. The service, which costs about $10 a month (that's in addition to your existing Sprint data plan), can alert you about possible traffic on your route due to congestion or an accident and if you so desire inform you how to avoid it. That's a pretty good trick, but the system is not psychic. You do need to input your route information (Note: You can do this at any time, before you leave or while stuck in traffic). Though results and information should be fast coming, TeleNav's system is updated every five minutes. While not instantaneous, that's a lot faster than the 10-minute updates you can find on some radio stations.

Currently, the service is only available to Sprint customers. If you want to add TeleNav Traffic to your list of monthly services, but don't have a Sprint GPS-enabled cell phone, no worries. You can always buy the optional TeleNav GPS Navigator Bluetooth Kit for about $100. Of course, you have to have a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone. Don't know if your cell phone supports Bluetooth? Try Settings and Tools in your cell phone's menu, you should find the feature there either by itself or under Connections or you can check for compatibility here.

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New at CES

Motorola had a great demo of their Motorola Phone Tools 4.0 at the CES booth. A big improvement: much, much better phone to contact association. You can now assign multiple phone numbers to the same name (ala Nokia's contact manager.) In past versions of Moto's contact management, you had to name each number (i.e. Igor's Cell Phone, Igor's home, so on . . . sucked beyond comprehension.)

And new addition to the function family: you can rip your mp3 into a ringtone and transfer it to your cell phone. You have the ability to snip out a specific section of a track loop it, even to tone up or down the waveform. This functionality isn't new (in fact I blogged about a similar online service that MBuzzy offers for free), and this has also been available from several third-party software providers. But as far as integrated functionality, it's a nice thing for Moto to offer.

Downside to Motorola Phone Tools 4.0, it retails for an MSRP of $29.95. Now while that's not a bad price (and it includes the USB cable); Nokia includes the same software and cable kit for free in all of their high-end phones.

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New at CES

Motorola showed off the S9 Bluetooth stereo headset. At first glance, it looks like something you might expect to see from Nike. It's that sporty. At just about an ounce, these noise canceling earbud 'phones won't weigh you down.

Also featured in the photo is the latest Motorola Rizr model, the Z6. What's so special about this version, it supports Linux. Why should you care? Because there's now the potential to get so many more applications. All you phone geeks, are you picking up what I'm throwing down? If you are, you'll be able to get your hands on this cell phone in the next couple of months.

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New at CES

Sony Ericsson added two new cell phones to its line-up: the W200 and the K310. The W200 is all about the music while the Z310 is all about style.

If you want a compact flip phone that's got basic features (you know, calls, VGA camera, texting) with a little extra flare, be on the lookout for the Z310. The nifty design element here is that beneath the shiny exterior hides an external LCD screen that appears when you press a side button. This GSM cell phone (service could be either T-Mobile or Cingular) will be available in pink, copper and black. The list price will be $219, but you should be able to find it for under $100 with service.

The W200 is all about pocketable music. In the same family as the W300, the W200 has the Walkman music player, a 128MB removable Memory Stick Micro (Sony's version of expandable media) for storing about 25 songs. Like the Sony Ericsson W600 you can send text messages or browse the web while listening to tunes. The cell phone, which will be available in black or white, has a list price of $179, but you'll probably be able to get it for $50 with new service when it debuts before summer.

Note: The black and white phones are W200s, while the flip phone featured below is the inside of the Z310.

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New at CES

Samsung released two Ultra cell phones: Ultra Video and the Ultra Music. Can you guess what they do besides make calls? Seriously, the interesting thing about Samsung's new Ultra phones is that they have one function on one side, flip it over and you've got an entirely different device.

The Ultra Video cell phone sports a cell phone on one side, with a full numeric keypad and approximately a three-line screen that is all about the text messaging and cell phone functionality. Turn it over and there's a widescreen horizontal display. It supports a plethora of video formats, so you'll likely be able to play back just about anything you want. But don't get too excited, there are no plans to bring the the Ultra Video to the United States.

You can, however, begin to salivate over the Ultra Music phone (SGH-F300) because that one is expected to arrive stateside the middle of this year. Like the Ultra Video model, the Ultra Music has a numeric keypad and smaller screen on one side and a large screen and entirely different controls on the other.

In this case, on the music side of the cell phone the controls are touch sensitive: this is one time when you should be thinking the iPod scroll wheel, only it's a bit more on the square side. You can store about 2,000 songs on an optional 2GB media card. It will playback Apple's AAC format, MP3, and Microsoft's WMA music files. Since the cell phone is GSM, possible carriers include T-Mobile and Cingular.

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New at CES

Stopped by the Nero booth today and had a quick chat about Nero Ultra Edition 7 Enhanced (yeah, it's a mouthful.) NUE7E is a fairly comprehensive software suite for your PC that allows you to do just about anything with your content: rip CD's, DVD's burn discs, mix, some editing, record video from a TV, integrate with a Microsoft XP Media Center Edition or (or regular XP versions for that matter) and so on. For several months now, Nero has also offered a Nero Mobile component, but it only worked with Windows Mobile cell phones. That was a bummer, as I could rip movies into a very small format, but couldn't get them to play on any cell phone that I owned.

So the news? An update of Nero Mobile is coming in Q1 2007 that will support not only cell phones running MS Windows CE 4.2 & 5.0 and MS Pocket PC/Smartphone 2003 & 2005, but will also operate on Symbian OS and embedded Linux cell phones and devices. Translation: Any Nokia cell phone that runs S60 (6682, N73, N80, N90, N91, N93, and N-Gage QD) will run the application, and so will some of the new Motorola cell phone (KRZR, RIZR.) And to be clear about what Nero Mobile is, it is an application that you load onto a cell phone that plays Nero Mobile (.mp4) video and audio files.

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New at CES

In the next couple of months, Verizon Wireless will debut two cell phones (Samsung SCH-U620, A.K.A. Samsung Mobi and the LG 9400) that you can use to watch TV. Yes, TV. This is different than the video you see on VCast video service now. It's actually TV. The details we all want are still forthcoming such as how much the new phones and service subscriptions will cost. But basically at launch you will be able to see and do the following:

• Live TV broadcasts - Think: news and sporting events.
• Delayed broadcasts of shows from the previous evening - Think: viewing an episode of a favorite show (such as 24) the next morning or later that evening depending on the line-up the network will be providing.
• Video-on-Demand service where you can see videos available on VCast Video.
• Channel surfing.
• Set parental controls.

There will be shows available from NBC News and Entertainment, CBS General, Fox, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and MTV.

If you're curious about battery life, it shouldn't take much more of a toll than talk time does now. So if you can talk on the phone for 2 hours before needing to recharge, you can probably watch close to 2 hours of TV on the cell phone before needing more juice.

Let me be crystal clear: It's not data. It's not VCast Video. It's TV. You will need a different plan, just as you would for your home TV service.

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New at CES

We're heading to Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), so check back for daily updates to find out more about new phones, accessories and trends we see at the show.

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New at CES

New Year's Eve is a pretty popular time to send messages and place calls regardless of the time zone. I know when the clock struck midnight for me I went to my coat to check my cell phone. Clearly, I wasn't the only person who thought this, as the room where I had my coat began to emit rings and beeps. I thought, "What the?" And realized people just wanted to wish one another a happy holiday.

Back to me and my phone. I started texting greetings and got the dreaded, "Message Failed." So I did what anyone else with a text message addiction would do, hit Resend until it made it through. But to my dismay I got no response or messages. I didn't think much of it, until I got an IM today, "Are you mad at me?"

Shocked, I responded, "Of course not."

The person retorted, "Why didn't you respond to my New Year's message?"

What? "I didn't get it. Why didn't you respond to mine?"

Of course, I got the only message I could at this point, "I did."

Foiled. So I went to textually.org to see if there was any news on cell phone message overload for New Year's. Couldn't find any info there. Then I found this Boston Globe article, which predicts 125 million text messages were going to be sent in the United States to celebrate the new year. I don't know for sure if that's how many were sent, but I feel a lot better now about losing a few messages.

If this happened to you ask the person you didn't hear from. They might think you're upset with them too and nobody wants to start the new year that way.

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Somethin' To Talk About

Towards the end of the year and often still at the beginning of the new year, people tend to make a lot of predictions about what we should expect to see or take a look back at how far the cell phone landscape has come. Instead, I'd like to think about the cell phone resolutions I'm making for myself. Here they are:

• Find a Bluetooth headset that actually fits comfortably in my ear. I have tiny ears and as such Bluetooth headset don't fit and if they do, they never stay on for long.

• If I'm driving, even in states where there are no hands-free driving laws yet, always bring a headset and use the voice dial feature built-into most cell phones. I know you can use a speakerphone, but I have still found in my own experience that turning on the speakerphone feature and then scrolling through the address book for the contact I want to call can be distracting.

• Discover stereo headphones for my cell phone that won't take up too much room in my purse or require a bunch of extra pieces needed to attach the headphones to the cell phone. I believe this won't be an easy task but as music phones become more and more popular some interesting products should begin to appear.

• Never leave home without my battery operated cell phone charger. I admit it, I don't keep as close an eye as I should on my cell phone's remaining battery life and often find myself doing everything I can to salvage the battery until I can get to a compatible charger.

• Really explore all the cell phone oriented GPS services. There's gotta be one that won't accidentally lead me down a one-way street or lacks updated street names. I spent a half-hour recently circling my destination only to later learn the street name had been changed six months earlier.

• Find a compact cell phone that easily and intuitively syncs calendar, addresses (yes, addresses and I'm not talking about using the additional notes field as a work around) that's not a smartphone.

• Be mindful of other people's text messaging plans. I know I have a text messaging habit that is probably worthy of some sort of 12-step program. Yet, what I have failed to realize is that my addiction can hurt the people around me. Now, I'm not talking about sending crazy messages or anything like that. I mean that not everyone has a text messaging plan or a plan that supports receiving pictures. As a result, those text-messaging plan deprived friends of mine end up paying extra at the end of the month for my habit.

These seem like simple resolutions, I know. Yet, they are worth making. If anyone has any helpful input to help me keep these resolutions, bring them on! I'll try any service or product.

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Somethin' To Talk About