May 01, 2007
phantom vibrating cell phone
wow, interesting, ever get the feeling your phone is vibrating on your leg when it isn't even in your pocket? yeah, me too. we're not alone:
Who's calling Is it your leg or your cell phone — JSCMS
Posted by Steve at 03:17 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
January 14, 2007
HTC: Support: Cingular 8525 FAQs
The 8525 FAQ straight from HTC. I gotta admit, there are some things about this phone that make my day really productive, and others that make it quite the opposite.
This weekend for example, my 8525 just stopped retreiving email from any connection, whether it be Cingular WAP, Cingular ISP, or even Wi-fi. It actually slowed my phone down to a crawl where I couldn't even accept calls. Not good! At any rate, I had to finally factory reset the device, reload all my apps, and now everything is back to normal. The battery life is still marginal, but better.
That all said, while on vaction over the last week, I was able to pretty much just use this device without ever breaking out my laptop to answer email, do some light browsing, and even to review some office docs. I can't say that was ever the case with a Blackberry or Nokia. So it's still a tossup, but the 3G speed and the general utitily of the device is otherwise making me stick with it for now.
Link to HTC: Support: Cingular® 8525 FAQs
Posted by Steve at 07:19 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
January 11, 2007
Get on the iPhone notification list at Cingular
If you want to start receiving information from Cingular on iPhone availability, you can sign up here:
Link to Shop Cingular | Cingular Wireless
Posted by Steve at 08:58 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
December 20, 2006
Chinese Government to Standardize Phone Chargers (MobileBurn)
It's hard to think of good reasons why this shouldn't be a standard everywhere. Especially my desk, where one can find no less than seven or eight different phone chargers laying around on any given day.
Every phone should have 3 ports:
1) USB small size, for transfer and charging. And RIM, make sure Blackberrys can charge using every other charger on the planet that uses this size port, as well as a usb-computer cable without running software on the PC
2) 2.5 mm headphone/microphone jack
3) 3.5 mm headphone/microphone jack
yes, they all should have both 2 and 3.
Link to Chinese Government to Standardize Phone Chargers (MobileBurn)
Posted by Steve at 04:10 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
December 01, 2006
Best Buy + Carphone Warehouse
I missed this that Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse are going to try a joint retail presence in the U.S. Most Americans have never heard of Carphone Warehouse, but it's a fun wireless toystore in the UK.
There are tons, and I mean tons of wireless resellers in the U.S. that sell cross-carrier phones and plans, but no one has quite put it together to a branded retail presence yet. It will be interesting to see if it works.
Link to Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse to launch mobile phone stores - FierceWireless
Posted by Steve at 03:02 PM | Comments (132) | TrackBack
November 21, 2006
Cash My Phone
I haven't tried this yet, but this service acts as a middle-man for used cell phones. Prices seem better than ebay's. they send you a check in 30 days. 30 days seems like a long time.
Posted by Steve at 07:02 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
November 12, 2006
Bluetooth wireless location-based marketing technology
I've gotten these in London a few times. When you are walking by the movie theaters in London, you'll get a phone message, and when you look it came via Bluetooth. Inside the message is usually a coupon for discounted concessions. Some of the music stores do this as well to push new releases or videogames.
It relies on people like me who never turn off the Bluetooth on their phone.
It's another example of a specialty ad network that ProximityMedia has created.
Link to Bluetooth wireless location-based marketing technology: flawless proximity marketing.
Posted by Steve at 01:41 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
October 02, 2006
space2phone - the mobile portal for space professionals and enthusiasts
Talk about vertical portals - space2phone promises to be "The Only Global Mobile Space Portal", and dammit, I believe them.
Link to space2phone - the mobile portal for space professionals and enthusiasts
Posted by Steve at 11:17 PM | Comments (57) | TrackBack
August 23, 2006
Nokia firmware updates!
Will wonders never cease. You can now get firmware updates for your Nokia without finding a "Nokia service center" (which btw, don't exist in the US that I know of).
long time in coming. hmm, no E61, yet.
Nokia - Phone Software Update
Posted by Steve at 05:19 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
August 09, 2006
sony ericsson K790a
wow, a 3.2 megapixel camera, and a music player, combined with EDGE. This phone is going to rock. too bad there isn't a HSPDA version (there is a UMTS version for Europe with the K800).
If you were thinking about the K750i, hold off for this one!
New memory stick format though from Sony, the M2. Duo Pro wasn't small enough?
Posted by Steve at 08:38 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 25, 2006
Xataka Móvil launches
WeblogsSL has released a new blog in Spanish covering the mobile area. They consistently have some of the best blogs coming out of Europe, and do a lot better than their translated American counterparts, so if you can read Spanish, or are just interested in mobile from another angle, check it out...
http://feeds.weblogssl.com/xatakamovil
Posted by Steve at 08:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 29, 2006
4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo [via Gizmodo]
For you Sony Ericsson W800 / W810 owners out there, a the specs always say (expandable to 2GB). I wonder if it can address a 4GB memory stick? 
Sony Memory Stick PRO Duo Goes Up To 4GB - Gizmodo
Posted by Steve at 03:26 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
June 20, 2006
3G BlackBerry coming soon (i hope)
RIM has released a UMTS version of the BlackBerry 8700 line in the UK - let's hope it gets to Cingular soon.
BlackBerry 8707
Posted by Steve at 08:46 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
June 19, 2006
Nokia takes on Moto in Chicago
An interesting choice of venue for Nokia's first brick and mortar store in the U.S. - right here in Chicago. I must say, I don't really know anyone who owns a Nokia phone anymore who isn't a mobile gearhead or wasn't given one by their employers at Google or Yahoo - and in Chicago (and probably many other places in the U.S.) - it's RAZRs as far as the eye can see.
Nokia used to have a pretty good foothold here with the 8290 and the 8390
- now those were kick-ass phones that took a lickin', and everybody had one of these in Nokia's heyday. Then Nokia went all smartphone on us, and only fools like me went nuts and bought the 6600 and beyond. Those were way to big and bulky for average Joe Chicago.
So, they're going to try to get back some brand awareness by opening a flagship store. Might be cool if I knew I could pick up some unlocked goodies they only sold overseas. Chances of that are slim to none, which is exactly how thick Nokia should be trying to make their phones.
Chicago to Open Nokia Store - Gizmodo
Posted by Steve at 01:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 20, 2006
more on Sony Ericsson W800 vs W810 [via MobileBurn]
i've pretty much stopped reviewing phones here because Michael Oryl at MobileBurn just does such a great job. His review of the W810 Walkman phone is no different. If you were interested in the W800, read this review. If you are here in the US, the major thing you want out of this phone is the 850Mhz band that allows it to work on Cingular.
Sony Ericsson W810 Review (MobileBurn)
btw - his feed is here:
http://www.mobileburn.com/xml/rss2.jsp
Posted by Steve at 12:43 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
April 05, 2006
iSkoot
this is cool - if you have a high end S60 phone and an unlimited data plan - iSkoot allows you to use your skypeout minutes to call skype contacts or anyone else via the IP network on your phone. i just tried it out, and although it takes longer to connect than a normal call, the call quality seemed to be right up there. Link below
Welcome to iSkoot
Technorati Tags: voip, skype, mobile
Posted by Steve at 04:29 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 13, 2006
P990 Features, straight from the source
I would want to try this versus the Nokiaberry S60 with a keyboard, both with a push email service.
New P990 features revealed
Posted by Steve at 09:23 AM | Comments (1913) | TrackBack
February 08, 2006
some BlackBerry cases
The aftermarket mobile accessories market is pretty fascinating, and it's big business. The device manufacturers know it, and even have business development people assigned to accessories. They feed off each other. Device manufacturers know that some people buy their phone based on how it can be customized.
Official RIM BlackBerry Accessories Store - Mobile phone accessory,Batteries,Headsets,Chargers,Cases,Holsters,Hands-free,travel gear,Mobile Phone,7510,7280,7230,7750,6710,7210
Posted by Steve at 12:44 AM | Comments (560) | TrackBack
February 06, 2006
funky keyboard on Sony Ericsson M800
First of all, is this really the Register? I've never seen these black pages before. Anyway - this isn't the P990, but a younger cousin. It will be interesting to see what it can do and what the next version of Symbian UIQ can do as well.
Sony Ericsson to ship iPod-styled 3G email phone in Q2 | Reg Hardware
Posted by Steve at 01:23 PM | Comments (1919) | TrackBack
January 27, 2006
My QR Code
QR Codes are cool. This is a QR Code encoding the URL of this site.
Many Japanese bloggers have these on their site, and also have an applications on their phones that allows you to use the camera on your phone read the QR Code, and then direct your browser to that URL. Much easier than tap typing.
You can get your very own QR Code here:
http://qr.quel.jp/form_bsc_url.php
The fields are Title, URL, Size, and Color. All you have to fill in is URL.
Alright, now I look for a S60 app that can process these. Anyone know of one offhand?
Posted by Steve at 11:27 AM | Comments (1801) | TrackBack
January 24, 2006
Opera Mini now free (J2ME Mobile Browser)
Perhaps on the news of Google acquiring ReqWireless, who has the leading J2ME browser in the market. Opera has made their J2ME browser offering free.
Just go to http://mini.opera.com in your WAP/xHTML browser to download.
Otherwise for $2.99 you can get it delivered via SMS. Wow, 3 bucks for those who are too lazy to type in a mobile URL. That's steep.
Opera Mini
Technorati Tags: mobile, wireless, opera
Posted by Steve at 12:41 PM | Comments (192) | TrackBack
January 22, 2006
Ladies love the pink RAZR
Seriously - my young sister-in-laws would kill for a pink RAZR.
Motorola V3 Pink Unlocked w/ H500 HOT PINK Bluetooth Headset
Technorati Tags: RAZR, motorola
Posted by Steve at 09:02 AM | Comments (248) | TrackBack
W800i vs W810i
For those of you who have asked about the W800i I have been carrying around, I would wait for the W810i. Why? The addition of the 850Mhz band will likely make this get a lot better reception with Cingular Orange.
Click through to see more photos from Mobile Tracker.
As an aside, I noticed Mobile Tracker, once an AdSense poster-boy, has moved over to YPN ads on his site. Very interesting.
Hands on with the Sony Ericsson W810i - MobileTracker
Technorati Tags: mobile, sonyericsson, w800i
Posted by Steve at 07:51 AM | Comments (3256) | TrackBack
January 12, 2006
Google Local for Mobile
Good phone coverage and the Blackberry. Google mobile acquisitions are starting to pay off.
Google Local for mobile
Posted by Steve at 02:41 PM | Comments (0)
December 09, 2005
EA to buy JAMDAT for $680 million
Mobile Game Developer - EA To Acquire JAMDAT Mobile for $680 Million
I've always liked EA and I've always liked JAMDAT - so I think this is a great move by EA - to own a distribution partner that perhaps has the strongest carrier relationships out there.
technorati tags: mobile games
Posted by Steve at 04:09 PM | Comments (6)
November 27, 2005
Mobile ESPN - a good MVNO idea
Mobile ESPN
ESPN has launched their MVNO service via their website and the demo does look pretty cool. It looks like they've done a damn good job of packaging and marketing this phone for the average pro sports fan - and i gotta admit, i'd be tempted if i cared about sports other than college football. So far there is one Sanyo phone (a good choice) and answers the question "How can I possibly get more sports into my life?"
Mobile ESPN really is running on the Sprint PCS network in the background over their EVDO network, so well, that's something you'll have to put up with if you wish to go this route.
technorati tags: mobile
Posted by Steve at 08:21 AM | Comments (1)
November 04, 2005
the always good MobileBurn does a 2MP shootout
Mobile Phone News and Reviews (MobileBurn)
I used to do these shootouts, but Michael Oryl just does such a better job. The K750 has the same camera as the W800i which is great. The N90 looks pretty nice as well.
Posted by Steve at 03:39 PM | Comments (30)
September 09, 2005
Access buys PalmSource for a song
Valuations are a funny thing. And so subjective. Access buys PalmSouce which I get - Access has been trying to get onto US handsets for years - first powering all the Sprint PCS Vision phones, and then by deploying a third party browser on things like S60 handsets and the PSP.
What i don't get is only for $324 million. Wow is that all PalmSource was worth? How many pre-IPO google employees could have bought PalmSource individually and had their own personal puppet show?
Didn't NewsCorp just buy MySpace for $580 million?
i know if you dig in there's reasons behind both these valuations, but wow, $324 mm seems really low.
Posted by Steve at 07:51 PM | Comments (201)
September 02, 2005
Bluetooth connectivity now in Dodge sport pickups
I don't cross-post to my different blogs much anymore, but it's worthy of note that Bluetooth connectivity with your car's audio system for making phone calls has come a long way since I started covering it here. Most makes and models now have a solution here, or at least have announced plans for integration.
It's now even made its way into pickup trucks!
Posted by Steve at 07:49 AM | Comments (19)
August 16, 2005
Samsung Series 60 phones
Akihabara news, ironically, in english and french - currently my favorite gadget site beating the pant off engadget and gizmodo - has a good link the the new Samsung Series 60 phones that will soon be released. i'm definitely interested in seeing these phones, as i do like series 60, but am tired of some of the nokia phone shenanigans.
in general i like what i've seen out of samsung lately. their mp3 players are pretty damn cool as well.
Posted by Steve at 08:21 AM | Comments (40)
August 15, 2005
aol mobile launches
AOL launched AOL mobile this morning, which is a new storefront and portal for their mobile users.
AOL I think was the first portal to integrate their IM into SMS, which I used on the T-Mobile network for a really long time. Now of course, you can get a rich IM application, to do this and a lot more on all the major portals.
AOL is probably a couple of years behind yahoo! here, but they've done a good job of organizing their apps:
Mobile AIM
Mobile AOL Mail
Ringtones
Wallpapers
MapQuest Mobile
MapQuest Traffic
etc.
When you select your device (assuming your device is there) you get a cool "My Mobile Dashboard" which has a bunch of settings for whether or not to forward IMs to your mobile, as well as a catalog of apps to buy, of course.
Posted by Steve at 08:35 AM | Comments (204)
August 01, 2005
firefly mobile
I walked into Target last week, walked into the PSP and iPod section, and was greeted by a nice friendly display from "Firefly Mobile." I guess they have been reported on before, but i missed it, so I was surprised to find an MVNO targeted at parents of small kids.
Firefly sells exactly one device, a simple phone with a small screen and only a few buttons: Mom, Dad, Emergency, and phone book in addition to call and hangup. The phone book apparently has to be programmed by parents.
The device itself is $99, and the service is pre-paid on what looks like the Cingular network (it's GSM 850/1900). The firefly marketing is equal opportunity English and Spanish from the get-go, which is interesting.
An interesting idea. I wonder what the age is in which a kid can carry one of these without getting made fun of? Maybe, a 6-10 year old can carry one of these?
Posted by Steve at 08:21 AM | Comments (3678) | TrackBack
July 13, 2005
2406 Nokia entries in my registry
wtf? i'm trying to figure out why my Nokia toolkit isn't starting up so i did a registry search for "nokia" and found 2406 registry entries on my PC. granted i have more phones than the average bear, but what the hell are all these?
Posted by Steve at 06:07 PM | Comments (338) | TrackBack
June 29, 2005
i hope this rumor is true - RAZR running windows mobile
I do really like the Moto RAZR V3 profile, but the camera is a bit weak, and the Moto OS is could be a bit more usable. I'm not a huge fan of the MS Mobile platform, but I like it better than the Palm OS. I'd consider using this model with a keyboard if it does indeed exist.
And, if it doesn't, Moto should hire the designer that photoshopped this!
Posted by Steve at 12:59 PM | Comments (4533) | TrackBack
June 27, 2005
unlocked cell phones getting easier to get
i noticed today that Tiger Direct, which has been sending me catalogs since i fell off my mother's teat, has started selling unlocked GSM phones. this is cool. i have heard from a few folks at Cingular that they keep seeing more and more of these things on their gateway, which is interesting.
people are catching on that we're way behind the rest of the world when it comes to phones, and that you can go elsewhere...
Posted by Steve at 08:01 PM | Comments (1804) | TrackBack
June 19, 2005
Treo 650 vs Nokia 6680 [via This is Mobility]
This is Mobility has a good comparison of the Nokia 6680 and the Treo 650.
Treos are certainly more popular around these parts (for one, because you can buy them from the operators) so this is interesting because it's U.K. based where Palm certainly doesn't have the foothold that it does in the U.S. It will be interesting to see how the Treo can make inroads in the U.K. where certainly people aren't tied to their palm apps.
Posted by Steve at 08:33 AM | Comments (66) | TrackBack
May 31, 2005
nokia 6680 ate my memory card
I think actually my memory card went bad. This is the Nokia branded card that came with the 6680 not a third party card.
Sunday something funny started happening on my Nokia 6680 when showing someone some pictures i had taken, a bunch of the images started showing the "broken" image gif mid slideshow. next thing i knew, i lost about 20 pictures i had taken.
using the on-board file manager, revealed my "Images" directory was empty, and checking the card on my laptop via an adaptor confirmed this.
next, my apps started throwing a "SymbianOS Error = -20" which i found out to be the nebulous "corrupt" error via the Symbian developer site.
putting the card back in the 6680 caused it to no longer boot and give me an error that basically said "this 6680 is toast, please return it to Nokia."
i wanted to replace it with a bigger card anyway, but it was a little disconcerting that i lost a bunch of great pictures. big bummer.
moral of the story - back up your phone memory like you would any other hard drive. don't say i didn't warn you.
Posted by Steve at 03:29 PM | Comments (1150) | TrackBack