PhoneDog.com Cell Phones articles

Video: A special moment with Noah

8/27/2008

Welcome to the PhoneDog Family, Ryan! And no, Noah didn't get fired! :-D

Video: Nvidia Tegra HD Mobile Phone - Development Demo

8/27/2008

Noah takes us to Nvision 2008 in San Jose to get an up-close look at Nvidia's Tegra system on a chip platform for mobile devices. The first Tegra smartphones should be out in mid-2009. This demo makes 'em worth waiting for - for starters, Tegra sports 720p HDTV capture and playback and a slick 3D user interface. Check it out.

Tegra: Up Close With Nvidia's Hi-Def Mobile Platform

8/27/2008

Yesterday in San Jose I got up close and personal with a development version of Nvidia's Tegra platform for mobile devices. I was taken through a demo of Tegra at the Nvision 2008 conference, and came away impressed - relative to the fact that I was looking at a reference design that will never be available to the consumer public in its current form. Nvidia is selling these development boxes - built around the APX 2500 system-on-a-chip for cell phones - to developers only. The company is working with partners to bring the technology to market in mobile phones for consumers, and an Nvidia representative told me they hope to see Tegra-powered phones in the marketplace within the next year. The company is also working with partners to bring Tegra technology to a line of MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) to compete directly with Intel's Atom processor-powered MIDs, the first of which were shown off at last week's Intel Developers' Forum in San Francisco. We should see Nvidia-powered MIDs in stores before the first Nvidia-based cell phones are released.

That said, what I saw was super cool. Most of the demo centered around a 3D carousel user interface that Nvidia built in-house. The UI looked great, and scrolling on the touchscreen-based device was very smooth. What impressed me the most was the handling of HD video playback on the unit. One of the windows on the UI was for video, and I saw 720p HD video playing back inside of the window while the carousel spun around - video playback was jerk-free, so far as I could tell, even while the carousel spun. A finger tap zoomed the video out to full screen, and it looked great.

But check this out - the device featured an HDMI out port, and a cable connected the phone to a full-size flat panel HDTV. The big screen mirrored the handheld's display, and everything looked great on the larger display - the UI, the scrolling, and the full screen 720p movie all displayed without a hitch. The top of the line Tegra 650 - which is destined for MIDs and not cell phones - will support full 1080p HD playback, according to Nvidia.

Nvidia claims Tegra can power HD playback for up to 10 hours so long as the handheld's display is off (i.e. using the phone to drive an external monitor), and the APX 2500 cell phone chip is capable of both HD decoding and encoding. In other words, not only can a Tegra device function as an HD-ready portable multimedia library, but it can also double as an HD camcorder, provided that it's built into a device with the proper optics. Nvidia said the Tegra platform can support mobile cameras with up to 12 megapixel capture resolution.

Pretty cool stuff. But don't just take my word(s) for it. We'll have video of the demo online later today. Meantime you can get some more of the nitty-gritty on Tegra over at Network World.

Nokia 6650: Will Americans ever love Symbian?

8/27/2008

Symbian S60 phones are awesome. They're powerful, customizable, extendable, and capable of all sorts of trickery. And yet, Americans have never embraced them. Sure, there's a contingent of hardcore mobile enthusiasts who gladly laid down $600 when the Nokia N95 first came out, and dropped another $700 or so a few months later when the N95-3 (with North American 3G) followed suit. But most folks in the States don't know from Symbian and went running back to their Windows Mobile smartphones or generic dumb phones the first time they tried an S60 device - not because S60 is bad in any way, but rather because it's so different looking.

Well, there's that and the fact that nary an S60 phone has ever been available direct from a US carrier. T-Mobile's had one or two Symbian S40 musicphones in its lineup for a few years now, but the only S60 devices I can recall with carrier branding as of late were the chunky N75 and somewhat crippled E62, neither of which caught on with customers.

Fear not, though, for AT&T is making another run at S60 acceptance with Nokia's newly launched 6650. The 6650 is something like a sleeker, more refined version of the N75: it's an S60 flip phone that trades its predecessors bulky grey exterior for a slimmed down, rounded off silver (or red) and black brushed metal body, while retaining the powerful feature set that caused the N75 to catch a few geeks' eyes last year.

Pick up a 6650 (whenever it's launched) and you'll get yourself Quad-band GSM with EDGE and HSDPA, GPS with AT&T Navigator, push-to-talk, a 2MP camera with flash, and a 2.2" QVGA interior display and 160 x 128 secondary screen with external media controls. You'll be able to keep tabs on Email, messaging, and the Web from wherever you go without looking like "just another iPhone/CrackBerry" user (if that's your thing). Seriously, if you're looking for an alternative in the smartphone world, Nokia's S60 devices are worth checking out, and it's nice to see at least one carrier-subsidized option here in the U.S.

Check out the 6650 in all its online glory on Nokia's product page.

JuiceCaster now available on BlackBerry

8/26/2008

JuiceCaster, the photo/video sharing application, is now available for free on the Blackberry Curve. Users can sign up to receive the JuiceCaster beta from here. The free beta application is available to Curve owners on AT&T and Verizon and will soon be available for Blackberry Pearl users (and for Blackberry users in Europe).

JuiceCaster is the social media application that lets mobile phone users capture pictures and videos and share them instantly with their favorite online social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Photobucket, Hi5, Blogger, Orkut, etc. JuiceCaster enables Blackberry users to connect with friends and exchange public and private multimedia messages on the go.

Week 11 winner - Phonedog Days of Summer - Phone giveaway

8/26/2008

Tammy Walker of Moss Point, MS won week #11 of the Phonedog Days of Summer Giveaway. She won a brand new Samsung M520 courtesy of our friends at Samsung.

How does it feel to win Tammy...?

OOOHHH my God!!! Iam so exidet about this great win!Thank you thank you sooo much,I still cant hardly believe that I was that lucky.

Tegra: Looking for NVIDIA's Cell Phone Platform

8/26/2008

Hey, remember Tegra, NVIDIA's mobile graphics system on a chip that got caught on video back in June? I'm headed down to Nvidia's Nvision 2008 conference in San Jose today to see if I can get an-person glimpse of Tegra in action. I have been able to find much Tegra-related coming out of Nvision thus far, save Eitarosoft's announcement that they've made Lamity, their 3D virtual world, available for the platform.

Nvidia's getting serious about smartphones, though, if you take CEO Jen-Hsun Huang at his word. "Our strategy with mobile is to completely focus on the smartphone," he said during yesterday's conference keynote. "We believe that the smartphone will become the next personal computer. This is clearly going to be the second personal computer revolution."

Whatever juicy bits I can dig up today, you know I'll pass 'em along to you right here ... You know I will.

Video: iPhone 3g v HTC Touch Diamond v Samsung Omnia

8/26/2008

Three of the heaviest heavyweights take center stage in part one of this PhoneDog Dogfight. In this corner - the iconic iPhone 3G. In that corner - the "Windows Mobile with a cherry on top" HTC Touch Diamond. And in, uh, that corner - the super-spec'd Samsung Omnia. Whose cuisine will reign supreme?

Superphones: HTC and Nokia announce new smartphones

8/26/2008

In the market for a high-end handset? Hang on to that wallet and get ready to drool: HTC and Nokia have four new pieces of advanced kit ready to battle for your hard-earned hundreds.

First up is the HTC S740, not to be confused with the Touch Pro. The S740, which will debut in Europe next month, takes design cues from the Touch Diamond, but loses the touchscreen in favor of a dialing pad on the front and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard underneath. You'll still get the a 2.4" VGA touchscreen, Windows Mobile 6.1, WiFi, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE, and HSDPA (no North American bands, sorry) along with a 3.2MP fixed focus camera. If you want your QWERTY with a touchscreen as well, look to the aforementioned Touch Pro, and not this dual-keypad beast.

Not to be outdone, Nokia officially launched three new N-Series "multimedia computers," as well. The N96, N85, and N79 will all come in North American versions, which means 3G data speeds if you're on AT&T (though the phones have only been announced in unlocked version). All three quad-band GSM/EDGE devices run Symbian S60 v.3 Feature Pack 2, and all three feature WiFi, GPS, a microSD card slot, and a 5MP camera with dual LED flash to go along with that HSDPA connectivity. The N96 packs 16GB of internal storage along with that microSD slot, while the N85 has a super-bright OLED display with QVGA resolution. The N79 will feature Sidekick-esque snap-off covers that reportedly pack sensors to trigger the phone's theme to change to match a given cover's color. Three covers - red, white, and dark-blue - will be included with the device.

Look for all three new Nokias to be available in Q4 of this year.

Video: Sony Ericsson w350 (AT&T) - Unboxing and Hands-On

8/25/2008

Noah goes in the box and hands-on with SE's new low-end Walkman phone, the w350. But can he leave his freshly shaven dome alone for long enough to look at the phone?

Blitz: Verizon launches an odd little QWERTY phone

8/25/2008

Blue 44! Blue 44! Set ... Down ... Hike!

Sorry ... I've been watching Hard Knocks on HBO and the name "Blitz" just set me off. Back at CTIA in April I saw a strange, squarish messaging phone at the UT Starcom booth. Four months later that odd little QWERTY phone is available to you, the lucky consumer, as the new Verizon Wireless Blitz.

Who's gonna buy this flat, wide sliderphone? Kids, of course! Check out this line from the press release:

Designed for the heaviest of texters, the Blitz comes complete with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and easy access to a dedicated My Messaging key, making this the must-have phone at schools from coast to coast.

Far be it from me to say what the kids will be rocking as the must-have phone this year, but I'm a bit concerned about Blitz's style. On the other hand, Blitz's feature set doesn't concern me so much - VZW packed a decent amount of punch into this lower-end alternative to the Alias and EnV2:

MP3 player supporting VCAST Music with Rhapsody
Stereo Bluetooth
1.3 MP Camera
microSD memory card expansion
Mobile Web (i.e. WAP-only)
Mobile Email access to MSN® Hotmail®, America Online® and Yahoo!® e-mail accounts
Mobile IM
VZ Navigator

Blitz will set you back $70 after rebate on a two-year contract. Not too bad for the, um, must-have phone of the season.

Refresh: VZW launches Voyager Titanium

8/25/2008

Verizon Wireless today launched the LG Voyager Titanium, a modest refresh to their flagship VCAST Messaging device. The new Voyager features support for VZW's new Visual Voicemail service and VCAST Music with Rhapsody for compatibility with Rhapsody's over the air music store.

The new Voyager otherwise seems to be the same as the original, featuring a clamshell design with an exterior touchscreen and interior secondary display and full QWERTY keypad. Voyager Titanium is availble immediately from verizonwireless.com for $149.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. The V CAST Music with Rhapsody service is available for $14.99 monthly access and Visual Voice Mail is available for $2.99 monthly access, per line, plus airtime or megabyte charges and messaging fees, depending on a customer's plan.

iPhone 3G speeds: Wired study reveals network weaknesses

8/25/2008

Awhile back I ran a few 3G data speed tests on video, comparing iPhone 3G to a few other high-speed Web capable devices. My results led me - and some of you - to wonder if I was nuts, had somehow screwed up the testing, or maybe had just received a lemon of an iPhone from Apple and AT&T. Well, according to a survey just published by Wired, none of those things is true; instead, I merely live in one of the worst areas in the world when it comes to data throughput on Apple's new cell phone:

In some major metropolitan areas that are supposedly 3G-rich, 3G performance can be very slow. For example, zooming in on San Francisco, you'll see that 10 out of 30 participants reported very slow 3G speeds -- barely surpassing EDGE.

This pattern is linea up with femtocell developer Dave Nowicki's explanation that in major metropolitan cities where the most iPhone users reside, 3G towers are getting overloaded, resulting in slowdowns or delivering EDGE-like performance as a result.

See, life isn't all high tech, sunshine and beaches out here in California (especially not in San Francisco, where it's foggy far more than it's sunny much of the time). We've got too many early adopters and trendsters out here, so not only did we have to bear hours-long lines to get our iPhone 3Gs, but now that we've got 'em we're all hammering the network at the same time. And, apparently, the network can't keep up.

The study reveals a few other interesting tidbits as well. For instance, while Australians reported the slowest 3G speeds overall, the U.S. had the highest number of "0" results, likely stemming from dropped connections. Want to know which countries and carriers reported the fastest connections? Click on over to Wired's blog for the full results.

gPhone Watch: HTC Dream is smaller than iPhone

8/25/2008

If you follow the world of shiny digital gadgets, you know how this story goes. First some rumors about a new mobile phone get leaked. Then the FCC outs said phone to the world by way of official documents that go public on fcc.gov. Then, depending on the timing, either the handset is unleashed upon the world, ending all of the rumor mongering and speculation as to the details of its more juicy bits, or the handset maker does some backroom shuffling in an attempt to keep further device details under wraps until launch day.

While the FCC unveiled the HTC Dream (aka The first Android phone) back on August 18th, the device is still at least a few weeks removed from hitting the market. Looks like HTC hit the FCC up with "a request to use a less detailed diagram for the label placement," according to Engadget Mobile. Somehow in the process further details regarding Dream's size and shape were let loose. The upshot? Dream is ever so slightly shorter and noitceably narrower than Apple's iPhone 3G, though Engadget's guessing (and I concur) that the new HTC phone will likely be a fair amount thicker than iPhone, owing to its slide-out QWERTY board.

The actual stats? Dream measures up at 115 x 55mm, while iPhone 3G is 115.2 x 62.1mm. So Dream is just a hair shorter but over 10% narrower than iPhone 3G. This may just fly in the face of what you were expecting if you watched that blurry video everyone says depicts Dream's basic design. Didn't see the video? Here you go:

Need more stats? Want more comparisons? Head over to Engadget Mobile for comparisons between Dream and a few more of your favorite not-yet-released smartphones.

Modern Times: Does Your Phone Free You or Shackle You?

8/24/2008

Ever see the movie The Insider with Al Pacino and Russell Crowe? At one point Al's TV producer character is at his beach house, walking in ankle-deep waves and talking on his phone to somebody important about some detail or another regarding an amazingly important and dramatic news story he's about to break.

I love that scene. Why? I love the idea of being in the thick of things while walking along the beach miles away from the action itself. Heck, I live my own less-dramatic version of that story every day, riding my bike to my office, sending Emails to phone company executives from coffee shops, and showing up for work in shorts and flip-flops only to be met by FedEx packages bearing goodies destined to be viewed by thousands on our YouTube channel. My words and images and videos show up on line, but really I could be posting them from anywhere.

At its best, technology can be incredibly freeing. Mobile phones in particular give us the freedom to connect to one another no matter where we are, which makes it easier for parents to let their teenagers go out unchaperoned and bosses to let their employees work from home, the road, or pretty much anywhere else besides the office. The benefits to the freedom of staying connected without having to stay in once place are amazing.

But there's a second side to this freedom, a dark side in which freedom becomes "hermetically sealed," as Ben Stein (of "Win Ben Stein's Money" fame) points out so well in an op-ed piece in Sunday's New York Times. Stein writes of "the chains of all kinds of devices, like the BlackBerry, the iPhone, and the Voyager ... the chains with which we have bound ourselves, losing much of our solitude and our ability to see the world around and inside us."

Obviously I'm a gadget fiend - communications gadgets in particular. I work as an editor at a mobile phone site, and before that worked as an editor at a portable computing site. I share an office with a friend, but actually work with people hundreds if not thousands of miles away, and so I spend far more time each work day communicating via Email and IM than on the phone or in person. I always have Email, SMS/IM messaging, and the Web in my pocket, thanks to my phone.

I genuinely love that I can stay in touch, stay on top, and stay in the loop no matter where I am or what else I'm doing. But I also fear becoming "that guy." You know, the guy who can't pull his head out of his BlackBerry or gets yelled at by his friends or wife/girlfriend for paying more attention to his SMS conversations than the people he's eating dinner with. On the one hand it's super cool that I can keep in touch with my old friends back in New York, where I used to live, without having to travel 4,000 miles. On the other hand, I sometimes do so at the expense of my new friends here in California who I can actually see and talk to right here in person on a daily basis. "Hang on, let me just text back," I say. Right, let me ignore you the person in front of me to immediately respond to some blinking lights and vibrating plastic buried in my pocket.

I'm no fool - earning my living depends on mobile communications, and the world has become an always connected, always mobile place (at least a good part of the world has). I used to teach junior high; I may not know what's up, but I at least have an idea of what's going on. But - as legions of grumpy old men have long said - people got along fine in the olden days without those crazy cell phones (or TVs, radios, silent movies, cars, bicycles, landlines, and so on).

Stein, in his Times piece, paints a picture we can all relate to - the modern airplane ride:

Consider an airplane flight. We are soaring across the country. We listen to music. We read books and newspapers. We sleep and dream. If you are like me, you look at the cloud formations and listen to Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A major. Maybe you talk to your neighbors.

You are free to think and to reflect on existence and on your own small role in it. You are free to have long thoughts and memories of high school and college and the first time you met your future spouse.

Then, the airplane lands. Cellphones and P.D.A.'s snap into action. Long rows of lights light up on tiny little screens ... The bonds of obligation, like handcuffs, are clapped back onto our wrists, and we shuffle off to the servitude of our jobs and our mundane tasks. A circuit is completed: the passengers who were human beings a few moments earlier become part of an immense, all-engulfing machine of communication and control. Human flesh and spirit become plastic and electronic machinery.

Sure, he's being a bit dramatic. But it's true. What's the first thing I do when my flight lands? See if I can get my new voicemails and Emails before the plane's done taxiing, that's what. Why? Because I want to know what's going on? Sure, that's part of it. But at this point it's mostly habit. Being always connected and always available isn't essential to my work, nor to my life. Sometimes it's fun, sure, and often it makes work easier, better, and even possible (I couldn't live in California and with folks in South Carolina without technology). But there's a line I crossed long ago that I'm trying to get back to: On my current side of that line is Obsession and on the other side of the line is Falling Behind. I think I check my E- and Voice-Mail so regularly because I'm obsessed, and not because I'm truly worried about falling behind.

Stein goes into the fate of our youth, growing up on all of this screen-based communication made possible by T9 predictive text and full-QWERTY thumboards. When I used to teach computers to elementary and junior high school kids, I'd try my hardest to chase them out of the lab and into the sunshine during free periods. I quickly learned that for many of them outside wasn't a fun place to spend time, as the playground can be cruel to a kid who's not athletically and/or socially adept at the ways of football, basketball, or flirting with members of the opposite sex.

So I stopped trying to chase kids out of the lab and instead encouraged them to make friends with their fellow technology hounds in the lab. The technology of communication is great, but all of the Emails, IMs, and Facebook chats in the world can't take the place of connecting face-to-face with the person sitting next to you. Even if it's only to trade WoW tips and cell phone tricks.

But now I ask you, oh reader ... Your phone: Your flip or slider, BlackBerry or iPhone, SMS machine or Email lifeline ... Does your phone free you or shackle you or both? Do you feel connected or isolated when you text and IM on the go? Is Ben Stein right or just old and out of touch (like I sometimes feel despite my FedEx boxes)? What's your take?

Video: LG Dare Review - New editors view

8/21/2008

Another LG Dare video review from Ryan RC Rae.

Price Cut: Sprint Nextel cuts phone-as-modem monthly fee ... Sorta

8/21/2008

Sprint Nextel chopped the price of phone-as-modem service from $50 down to $15 monthly, but there's a catch. Where the old $50/month fee included everything a user needed to use Sprint's data network for "laptop tethering" (connecting a computer to the Internet by using a cell phone as a data modem), the new $15 charge only applies as an add-on to existing services that already include mobile data. So if you're a Sprint customer who wants data on your smartphone and your laptop, you may see some savings here; but if you're looking for cellular data on its own the price cut won't really affect you.

Citing a report from industry research firm Current Analysis, RCR News broke the new service offerings down this way: "the $15 offer is only available alongside certain data plans, including the Sprint PRO Pack ($30 per month), Blackberry Personal Pack ($30 per month), Worldwide Blackberry Personal Pack ($70 per month), Primary Data Plan ($50 per month) and the Worldwide Data Plan ($70 per month)." Additionally, you must have a compatible Sprint Power Vision (EV-DO) phone to use the PAM service.

Still, $45 monthly for a data plan that includes laptop access isn't bad compared to similar offerings from the other carriers. Bear in mind that's $45 on top of your monthly minutes and messaging. But Sprint's EV-DO Rev. A network is arguably the best data service in the land, and if you've got good coverage where you use your computer most often, this could be an interesting way to ditch both the landline and DSL/cable modem broadband service and go totally mobile.

Any of you Sprint Nextel users care to weigh in on that one?

Android: HTC Dream is Awesome But Won't Come Until January

8/21/2008

So I almost didn't post this because I don't want to clutter anyone's mind with yet another rumor that contradicts all of the other rumors. But it's decent information so I should pass it along to you and let you make your own mind up about it. Right?

A mobile industry exec I met the other night told me he thinks the Android-powered HTC Dream is the first phone he's seen since iPhone came out that could really give Apple a run for its money in the newly burgeoning mainstream marketplace for high-end devices. Dream hits a sweet spot where high tech whiz-bang features and smartphone power meet ease of use and general consumer appeal. My source, who doesn't work for a carrier or handset maker but is in a professional position to see all of the new goodies well before they hit the streets got to play with a Dream running Android Beta a few weeks back and came away impressed (he's got the kind of job that makes the HTCs and Googles and T-Mobiles of the world want his early opnion on usability and business decisions when it comes to new handsets).

When I asked about release dates, he debunked the recent rumors of T-Mobile bringing Dream to market in October. "It'll be early next year, probably," he said. "January. It was going to have been eariler but had to be pushed back. I don't think we'll see it in Septmber or October like the blogs are predicting."

General

8/20/2008

Q. Hey Noah - I'm looking for some information on the LG Rumor and Samsung Upstage. I've seen the videos and they provided me some information. I would like to know some more information on both phones and I'm curious on how texting works on the Upstage. If you can give me some information on the 2 phones that would be great. Thanks

A. Thanks for the message, and for watching the videos. UpStage is a pretty old model at this point, so you may have trouble finding a new one for sale. That said, texting is kind of a pain on it - the two-sided design means that you've got a nice big touchscreen on one side, and a small screen with a dialing keypad on the other. The keypad is much easier to dial/text on than the touchscreen, but the display on the keypad's side is so small that you can't see very much of your message. I also recall having to flip the phone over quite a bit when using it for messaging -- I haven't used an UpStage in quite some time now, but I do remember it not being very good for much besides calling and audio/video playback.

Rumor, on the other hand, is a great messaging phone. You'll lose out on the higher-end features like Web browsing and such, but it's solid, comfortable, and has a good QWERTY board. Rumor's display is small, but it's far better for texting than UpStage.

Cheers,
nk

Get Excited: Hands-on with BlackBerry Bold

8/20/2008

So this guy walks into a bar and says, "Wait, is that a BlackBerry Bold in your pocket or are you just happy to see the Phone Dawg?"

Sorry, couldn't resist. But seriously, that blurry photo? It's me, in a bar late last night, posing with a an AT&T-branded BlackBerry Bold. The Bold belongs to the person who took the photo, and said person had also just bought our second round of Guiness, so you'll have to forgive the blur. Like I said, it was late.

But ... The point here is I got some hands-on time with Bold. If you're a BlackBerry fan waiting for this baby to drop, I think you're gonna be happy. As you might have read already, Bold's display is absolutely gorgeous. Bright, rich, crisp, clear ... phenomenal. The new UI looks good, too - it's like RIM decided to join the rest of us in the land of eye candy. It's not "iPhone's Fisher-Price UI" (as the Bold's owner put it), but I'd say it's slick looking to draw some would-be defecters back to the land of RIM.

I didn't get a ton of time to play, but from what I could tell the device is pretty snappy. As snappy as the quad-core laptop I saw at Lenovo's IDF booth earlier in the day? Uh, no. But I certainly didn't walk away thinking, "Oh, performance issues." The Web browser looks to be significantly improved, and the overall design is nice. Think iPhone (black and chrome) meets Nokia E71 (thin with a nice, comfy QWERTY board).

The one possible hiccup here? You guessed it: AT&T. My new friend and I discussed 3G reception and s/he basically said, "It's been hopping back and forth between 3G and GPRS all day. And I'm in San Francisco which, you know, is kind of a major tech market." Um, yeah, there are a few data-hungry customers in these parts ... which could mean that we should have better HSDPA connectivity than anywhere else, or could mean we hammer our network so hard that we shouldn't reasonably expect a good data pipe. Either way, though, given the recent 3G issues surrounding iPhone, it'll be interesting to see how Bold performs once it's released.

Speaking of which ... We now know that Rogers is looking to deliver Bold to its Canadian customers on August 22. So what about AT&T here in the US? "Should be out a few weeks after Rogers," is what I was told. Sounds like CTIA time to me ...

Unboxing: Samsung Goes Viral With Omnia Unboxing Video

8/19/2008

This is pretty cool. Samsung apparently reached out to Technivator to make a staged unboxing video for their new Omnia smartphone. And Technivator delivered. This is pretty sweet - even if I did just use the phrase "staged unboxing video" (what kind of world is this?). Nice work, Technivator. And tip o' the hat to you, Eric, if you were involved in this:

September: Sprint May Be Launching Touch Diamond Next Month

8/19/2008

Engadget's got this graphic that's supposedly a slide from an internal Sprint presentation/update, and it details a September launch of the HTC Touch Diamond. The good? Touch Diamond on Sprint, duh. The bad? $299.99 on contract, after $100 rebate. $399.99 and two years out the door? Yikes. I've been testing the Touch Diamond, and it's a solid device and all, but that's crazy expensive given today's US carrier landscape.

In any event, you'll soon be able to get your TouchFLO 3D, Windows Mobile 6.1, 4GB of storage, 3.2 MP camera, Opera browser, EV-DO Rev. A and WiFi groove on, CDMA-style. Woo-hoo!

Summer Round-Up: Palm Centro - AT&T

8/19/2008

Previous Posts in this series:
AT&T: Apple iPhone 3G , LG Vu
Verizon Wireless: LG Voyager, LG Dare, Samsung Glyde, LG Decoy
Palm Centro- AT&T Wireless
Palm came back from the brink of disaster with the popular Centro. The Centro is something of a crossover phone, to borrow a term from the auto industry - it combines the size and design of a messaging phone with the power of a Palm OS smartphone. While Centro's QWERTY thumbboard appears almost too small upon first glance, all but the most demanding BlackBerry user should find it quite comfortable for regular (but light) Email and messaging use.

Pros: Compact, attractive design; Good blend of smartphone power with messaging phone-style ease of use; 320 x 320 touchscreen; Email, IM, Push-to-Talk, and XM Radio support

Cons: QWERTY board will be too small for some users; Palm OS needs a refresh

Buying Advice: If you're interested in keeping tabs on your messages and calendar on the go but are put off by the size and geekiness of standard smartphones, check out the Centro. Palm did a great job of making a compact, colorful smartphone for the fashion conscious. AT&T's Centro may not be the best Centro for you, however, depending on your personal preferences and needs.

General

8/19/2008

Q. Noah, I was extremmely close to buying the iPhone until I saw the Samsung Omnia in your video. looks tight. how cool is it and is it up to par with the beast made by Apple?

A. I've only had a little bit of hands-on time with Omnia but it definitely looks great. Omnia's a Windows Mobile device, so it should be somewhat similar to the HTC Touch Diamond in that you've got Windows Mobile 6 running underneath with a nicer layer of user interface on top. On the one hand that's too bad because I'm really NOT a fan of WinMo and, as the saying goes, "You can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig" (i.e. Adding a pretty interface onto Windows Mobile doesn't change the code base running underneath). On the other hand, lots of people rely on WinMo to connect to their work Email and Outlook accounts, and there are tons of WinMo apps out there for installation.

Beyond that, the device itself looks really good. Great specs, good form factor, lots of connectivity options. Just today Samsung told me I should have a review sample by the end of this week, so look for a longer video and more coverage on PhoneDog.

Cheers,
Noah

Summer Round-Up: MOTO Z9 - AT&T

8/19/2008

Previous Posts in this series:

AT&T: Apple iPhone 3G, LG Vu

Verizon Wireless: LG Voyager, LG Dare, Samsung Glyde, LG Decoy

MOTO Z9 - AT&T Wireless
Motorola's Z9 is an interesting phone. It's larger and thicker than most of today's feature phones, and yet it has tiny little buttons on its dialing keypad. The Z9 feels good in hand, has a solid slider mechanism, and a big, bright display. Add GPS, 3G/Cellular Video support and a 2MP camera and you've got a fully featured device that sits at the upper end of AT&T's feature phone up. The question here is whether or not you like Z9's trend-bucking form factor.

Pros: Great display; Fully-featured; Easy to use, clean UI; GPS and 3G connectivity; Support for turn-by-turn directions; Solid build quality

Cons: Buttons on keypad are tiny, may prove difficult/unintuitive for some users; Large form factor (though some may see this as a pro)

Buying Advice: Try before you buy: the Z9 is something of a heavyweight by today's standards. If you like the look and feel of the handset, though, you'll probably really enjoy its solid performance and big, bright display.