GSMfanatics.com - Explaining the Paradigm Shift in Mobile Phone Technology

How long before the smart phone is as smart as your computer?

2009-07-09T15:50:00.004-04:00

It’s not a question of if; it’s a question of when. Smart phones will eventually be as good as modern desktops.. The latest iPhone has a 600mhz processor, that’s faster than just about anything from 7 or 8 years ago. Back then 700mhz was the realm of the supercomputer. Not bad considering the iPhone can be had for $200. But I think the figures actually belie the usefulness of the iPhone vs older desktops.

The iPhone is much, much more useful than older computers. It can easily handle all the same tasks from gaming to excel editing, and even introduces a few of its own trick features thanks to its motion sensing and light sensing abilities. When was the last time your home computer automatically dimmed its monitor when you turned the lights off, or made things brighter when the sun came creaking through your window and shown its glare on your monitor.

Admittedly, smart phones will always suffer for their compact size. You’re just never going to get a keyboard that’s 2.5” wide to work as well as one 18” wide, it’s just not going to happen. And the same thing is true for the screen, a 17” monitor will always give you better view ability and resolution than a palm sized screen. And those are pretty much the only limitations of the smart phone. It can easily overcome storage space, speed, and reliability as technology improves. This leaves two problems left to overcome, and they are already being worked on.

Let’s focus on the keyboard, along with the mouse, it has been the main method for computer input for many generations now. But that might change. Smart phones are moving to very advanced capacitive touch screen technology which allows for quick and easy control. Gestures – flicks, taps, squeezes, and slides, are the new key strokes. Applications can now be controlled entirely with hand gestures, add in things like rotating or shaking of the phone and you have a pretty complete input system, and that’s before you even get to voice recognition.

Those are just the technologies that are already mainstream. Don’t forget about the technologies still in testing such as controlling devices with mouth or eye movements, some researchers are even working on mind control; yes you literally will be able to control electronics devices with your thoughts.

Take the iPhone as a quick example of how well alternative means of input to the mouse and keyboard can work. Choosing a song to listen to is just as quick as it would be on your computer, setting the alarm is the same deal, checking the weather is just as easy as well, and so is taking a picture. It’s all just as easy with the iPhone as it is with a computer. The area where the iPhone falls down is text entry, writing long emails is still much, much easier and faster on a real keyboard. But that’s about the only thing.

Once developers work out a better way for small devices to do large amount of text entry we will be in the clear for unparalleled development on smart phone devices. And smart phones by their nature are more convenient than desktop computer or even laptops. Smart phones fit in your pocket and you can take them anywhere. The best computer is the computer you always have with you.

I give it 10 year before we are mind controlling our smart phones, and another 2 or 3 after that before they are sending signals back to our brain rather than outputting information through a tiny screen. At that point though, smart phones will arguably, be a bit more than just phones.

The future of the iPhone – Will success lead to failure?

2009-07-08T16:22:00.002-04:00

The iPhone is popular, very popular in fact. Apple sold over 1 million phones in just the first weekend of the phones release (iPhone 3GS). Apple has sold roughly 15 million iPhones to date, including first gen, 3G, and 3GS phones. And sure at least 2 or 3 of those phones have been blended by Mr. Dickinson, but still it’s enough in sales to bring Apple up to nearly 10% market share in the smart phone segment. All that in only 2 years, that’s really moving, just imagine where apple will be in another 2 years. Some analysts predict market share of 33% by some time in 2011. All of this makes Apple’s measly 7.5% share in the computer sector seem Lilliputian in comparison. And that got me thinking, aren’t Apple’s supposed to be exclusive? Isn’t that why they charge such an exorbitant price for their products?
I thought the whole appeal of Apple products is that their different…unique…and some how just better than any other computer out there, in an innocent but slightly snobby way. You don’t have to be a computer guru to know what I’m talking about either, look at those commercials on TV and tell me that Justin something or other fellow doesn’t come across as smug. Take a trip to your local Apple store and count the number of piercings if you’re bored one day. I always loose track some where around 30. Every employee has blue hair, extra tight jeans, and those silly looking converse sneakers with the black and white chess board pattern. They all act very relaxed and say “hey man” a lot. Basically their unique and proud of it.
I don’t think these people would be too happy if everywhere they went people had colored hair, silly sneakers, and uncomfortable jeans. And it’s the same story with Mac’s. Mac users like to see one or two Mac’s a day, like their part of secret society, not thousands everywhere they turn. They want a Ferrari, not a Camery. And I’m afraid the iPhone has become a Camery, when the phone can be had for $100, without having to wait a week online, or jump through blazing rings of fire, then it’s no longer exclusive.
The real challenge for Apple will be to make the phone exciting without being rare. To make every customer feel like they’re special even when they’re not. I have an iPhone, and I’m proud not to have a boring blackberry. But I don’t have green hair and I don’t try to fit pencils through my earlobes, so naturally I don’t own a Mac. Can the iPhone remain in the vanguard even with a distinctly average following? Only time will tell?

Does Apple want the iPhone to be Jailbroken or Unlocked?

2009-07-07T17:29:00.003-04:00

My friend was joking about how much Apple must hate the Dev Team, the group of hackers who reverse engineer the iPhone so that 3rd party applications can be put on the phone without going through the App store, or Apple’s approval process. The group is also the driving force behind the movement to unlock iPhones so that they can be used on any carrier network. I argued that Apple was probably more ambivalent towards the Dev Team than one might expect. Sure, the Dev Team is a pesky bunch of hackers who constantly defeat any security measures that Apple employs to blockade the phone from unlocked use. But let’s not forget that Jobs got his start in the computer world by hacking their predecessors, land line phones. As a teenager Jobs idealized hackers and wanted to join the ranks of archetypal characters like “Captain Crunch, the vanguardist hacker extraordinaire. After building his own phone “phreaking” black box, Jobs went on to found Apple, but his hacker specter certainly must live on.
Which again brings us back to the question does Jobs or Apple want their phones to be jail broken. Jail breakers have certainly pushed the development of the iPhone farther and faster than Apple themselves has been willing or able to do. Lets not forget the laundry list of features first developed for Jailbroken phones, MMS, video recording, voice recording, ability to remotely control other computers, navigation, increased Bluetooth functionality, ability to upload media to remote servers, copy & paste, I could continue but I think you get the idea. Jailbrekaing is without a modicum of doubt, the reason we have many of the features of the 3GS and OS 3.0. Jailbreaking allows applications to make their way onto the iPhone that Apple could never allow themselves for fear of litigious retaliation from any number of concerned specialty groups. Is Apple happy that hackers have pushed the development of the phone along, and shown the world what the iPhone is capable of, or are they upset that hackers have torn down the walls of their carefully constructed system and allowed everyone limitless access?
Then there is the most common argument found in any hacker debate, money. Does the hacking community increase or decrease Apple’s revenue? On the surface it seems like an easy question to answer, if people are able to get applications without needing the pay as you go App store, then Apple is loosing money. There’s also the forfeited revenue in the form of contract money from AT&T. Apple’s agreement with AT&T gives them 30% of the monthly service fees collected by AT&T on all iPhone accounts, and that adds up to a lot. With unlocked phones subscribers are no longer tied to AT&T, they are free to roam as they please from one carrier to another if they so desire, denying Apple a sizeable amount of money. However, it’s important to remember that Apple is the sole manufacturer for the iPhone and that means that every single iPhone in the world, no matter how jailbroken, unlocked, or hacked it may be, was purchased from Apple. Apple built the old iPhone 3G for around $150 for the 8gb model, and that’s cheap. Especially when you consider they collect around $700 on each phone after an AT&T subsidy to the customer. If you want to buy an iPhone outside of the US without an AT&T contract it could cost you even more, up to $800 in some places.
Revenue from the App store is generated by collecting 30% of the sale price of all applications that are purchased. And that seems like a lot when you consider that the App store has already had over 1 billion downloads. Most of those however were free, and the ones that weren’t free sold for an average price of roughly $1. When you add it all up, it amounts to a fairly small pile of money, at least when you consider Apple’s overall revenue. And that’s the point; Apple makes far more money on the sale of the physical devices than they do on the sale of applications.
Their profit model then, is the same as the model for all other Apple products. The software is created under a no-profit scenario in which more development money is spent on the software than could ever be recovered by software sales alone. But the software is what sells the hardware, and that’s where Apple makes their money.
The iPhone then, is a very profitable venture for Apple, but mostly it’s because of the huge margins on the hardware, and jailbreaking is never going to change that. In fact jailbreaking has lead thousands and thousands of anti-Apple consumers to cave in and purchase the very capable iPhone. And in this way jailbreaking and unlocking may actually be making Apple more money!

The Ugliest Phone In The World, The Motorola QA1

2009-07-02T16:42:00.006-04:00

I came across a couple pictures of this phone today and I was shocked, in this day and age how could a major cell phone manufacturer come out with something so hideous. The QA1 is not just ugly; it looks like the bastard love child between an obese midget and a Blackberry Storm. It’s horrible, its not just a matter of taste, this phone is clearly unattractive. And that’s my point, is Motorola deliberately producing an unattractive phone, or are they so obtuse they can’t see how grotesque this phone is, is it like a parent who never thinks their child is ugly, no matter how obvious it is.
How can Motorola plan to compete with the likes of Apple, RIM, and LG, if they keep putting out crap like this? Apple is known for their design prowess, and the iPhone is one of the sleekest and sexiest phones on the market, no doubt about it. Offerings from LG aren’t half bad either, based just on looks; the chocolate, voyager, and especially the KS20 are very attractive phones. And while no one is going to accidentally mate with a Blackberry, from a strictly industrial and utilitarian standpoint the phones are very nice; they have a pleasing aesthetic quality to them.
But since the Razor, Motorola has really struggled to produce attractive phones, and they really need to get their act together if they want to stop loosing market share to Apple & LG like they have been over the past few years. Don’t believe me about the horrendousness of Motorola phones, just have a look at the i465, I think it’s even worse than the QA1. It looks like it got dented after falling off the table and they didn’t bother to fix it before putting it on sale.
Motorola’s market share has plummeted over the past few years, and I think it’s because they have stopped innovating. Their designs are ugly and their features are trite. Motorola was the maker of the StarTAC, the $1,000 phone of the mid 90’s noted for its stylish and trend setting design…what happened. Where has that creativity gone? In just 10 years Motorola has slipped from one of the major cell phone players to a bit of a joke, their efforts are a faff and their products are hopeless.

The future of Media on Smart Phones

2009-07-01T16:10:00.003-04:00

The last few years have seen an exponential growth in storage capacity, not just in smart phones, but in the electronics & computer industry in general. Storage has become so cheap and plentiful it feels as though we will soon reach the point of having so much space the thought of running out would be laughable. This is certainly the case with the modern computer. With 1 Terabyte hard drives selling for well under $100, storage is now cheap.
Will the same be true of Smart Phones? The newest iPhone can now hold 32gb, up from the 16gb model which preceded it, and before that was 8gb and even earlier was a meager 4gb. But is all this storage space really needed on smart phones? At first glance the answer would appear to be “sure, why not” if computers need lots of space, and smart phones are becoming min computers, they too need lots of storage space.
I want to suggest however, that they don’t need all that space. The reason, one word, streaming. With smart phones constantly being connected to the internet there is no need to store media locally? AT&T has HSUDPA, Verizon & Sprint have EVDO, and T-Mobile will get their act together eventually. High speed internet on smart phones is becoming ubiquitous. Just as the cable internet age lead to a boom in online streaming websites (Hulu, Netflix, etc…) the same will be true of the 3G age for cell phones.
Pandora already lets users stream music to pretty much any smart phone platform. And there are applications for the iPhone which allows users to access their own personal music connection over 3G. Finally, Apple is scheduled to update MobileMe with the ability to stream any content over 3G. That means you can watch your favorite movies, listen to your favorite songs, view all your pictures, and even watch porn remotely from your smart phone.
Why cram more storage into a smart phone when all it does is increase its size and cost? Just let your computer at home do all the work for you. You can have all the terabytes of storage at your house, loaded up with all your favorite movies. Then you can have your cheap and nimble smart phone stream whatever you want.
That’s the way I see it at least. I’m sure smart phone storage capacity will increase regardless. As flash memory gets cheaper, every manufacturer will cram as much of it into their phones as possible, it’s just the arms race that is the modern day smart phone industry. But my point is that it’s not really needed. That’s why I bought my 3GS in 16gb flavor instead of the more expensive 32gb variety.

Ditching The Trackball In Favor Of The Optical Track Pad?

2009-06-30T13:00:00.011-04:00

Will Blackberry be forever ditching the Trackball in favor of the track pad; it’s a question that we at gsmfanatics have been thinking about lately. The track ball has been RIM’s favorite method of phone navigation since the introduction of the pearl in late 2006. Since then every single Blackberry, save for the disenchanting Storm, has featured a track ball. Prior to the track ball’s introduction, scroll wheels where all the rage. People where actually skeptical about the accuracy and ease of use of a track ball and some where even hesitant to adopt the phone for fear of loosing their beloved scroll wheel.

Fast forward a few years later and the new question is the optical track pad. RIM’s first phone to feature the new optical track pad was the Curve 8520, which leaked into the hands of a few lucky testers who had mostly good things to say about them. Reviewers mention that they are more accurate and smoother than the trackball, and easier to control as well. They are also less likely to brake. Everyone with a curve knows that after about a year of use, the silver ring that holds the ball in place seems to weaken and people seem to find themselves owning a phone with a big hole in the middle where the trackball used to go. There are no moving parts on the new optical track pad phones, and that means fewer parts to brake. I even know of one unlucky sole who managed to accidentally get a drop of soy sauce to land exactly on the ball of his curve, where it stained the little sphere and he was forever reminded of his folly.

You don’t need to be Nostradamus to have predicted the arrival of tack pads. Just take a look back into the early years of computers. First came the original trackball in the 50’s then nearly 20 years later you had the arrival of the ball mouse in the early 70’s. It wasn’t until early 2000’s that the optical mouse really took off. Alongside its development existed the track pads that are found in modern laptops. And while their technology is markedly different from RIM’s optical track pad, the idea is the same. You move your finger over a small area to control a mouse, or pointer. The evolution in the Smart Phone industry from scroll wheel, to track ball, to track pad was inevitable.
RIM’s newest arrival will soon be the Blackberry 9020 (Onyx), which will feature an optical track pad. Nokia has also joined the race, and actually beat RIM to the finish with the planned release of the E72, the first Nokia to feature the “Optical Navi Key” as they call it. The phone is scheduled to be released the end of Q3 2009, which should put it out just slightly ahead of RIM’s planned 9020.
With neither phone officially available to the public yet, they have been very few hands on reviews of the optical track pad technology. But I think you can call this one a win before its even started. There’s a reason no one uses ball mice anymore, there not as accurate, they get dirty and require cleaning, and there actually more expensive than new low cost optical mice. And I predict the same will be true of their Smart Phone counterparts.

Follow Up Test - iPhone 3GS -Worth the Money After All

2009-06-29T15:56:00.003-04:00

Our very first post on this blog was about the new iPhone 3GS, the question I posed was, “Should you upgrade to the new phone,” assuming you already had an iPhone or iPhone 3G. My conclusion was a rather ambivalent “yes”, but only if you think the new features will really help you. Well ambivalence be dammed, by lust for a new gadget was too strong to resist, and I bough the new iPhone 3GS. I was not eligible for the early upgrade and I had to pay $400 for my 16gb 3GS. Luckily I was able to recoup nearly all of that cost by selling my old phone back to CashMyMobile.com. I sent in my old phone the day I got back from the apple store with my new phone and I had money in my paypal account by the end of the week, impressive stuff really.
But back to the 3GS, I’ve spent several days with the phone and I have come to see that it’s exactly what I expected. It’s not a revolutionary change. It still feels like pretty much the same phone. It looks the same and works the same, and has mostly the same features. But it’s better, smoother, and just plain nicer to use than the old phone.

Turning the phone on takes no time at all, and launching applications and going through your daily activities are improved. Things which were once painfully slow are now bearable, like waiting for the camera to load. With the old iPhone, as your perhaps passing a funny sign in the car, you ready your camera, only to pass the sign while waiting for the shutter to open...what a waste. With the new phone you’re able to capture the sign, just barely, but if you slow down enough you can manage. And it’s the same story with all the other applications, YouTube now launches without seeming to hang on the loading screen, mail and safari launch instantly, even the iPod application works faster.

The Voice recognition feature is fun, and works pretty well, but I won’t really use it much. To me, holding down a button for a few seconds and then say a command is just as easy as launching my favorites and making a call that way.
The Compass is a bunch of techno wizardry, how the hell does it work, how can the possibly know what direction the phone is pointing, I’m still amazed. And it’s really convenient to have your maps always facing in the right direction. It makes using a map that much easier for those of us who have absolutely no innate sense of direction. It allows me to be that much more dependant on technology to survive.
The Camera is a big improvement, the quality of photos is much better, and I think its down mostly to the auto-focus. The biggest problem with the old camera was not the quality; it was the focus, it never seemed right. Close up shots were always blurry and far away shots were just as bad. You had to find the sweet spot to make it work. That’s no longer the case, the camera is now good enough that you can actually use it instead of a point & shoot. You’re not gonna be replacing your SLR camera anytime soon, but if you were going out at night and wanted to bring your camera, you don’t really have to anymore. The 3GS camera works in low light conditions well enough to be useable, and the autofocus means that even when you’re too drunk to tell if the pictures are coming out clear, the phone is smart enough to make sure they are no matter what.
Being able to take video is fun as well, I have no real need for this feature, but I can tell that its more than just a novelty. Maybe I’ve just gotten used to never having the ability to record video, so I no longer see the opportunities, but either way having the ability to upload something to YouTube at any time is a powerful tool.
Although battery life is claimed to be improved, I have not really seen any difference, the phone still struggles to make it through a full day without nearly dying.

Overall the biggest differences are the speed and the camera, they are the only things that really, really matter. The phone no longer seems to get bogged down, it no longer makes you wonder why its taking so long. And couple that with a camera that’s finally useable and you have some material improvements that just might be worth the price.

Why the Verizon Storm is a Crappy Phone

2009-06-26T18:00:00.004-04:00

The following is my rant on the Blackberry Storm 9000, to put it bluntly I just don’t like the phone. Since the day I first picked one up I thought it was stupid, from its unnecessary haptic feedback to its ridiculously slow and clumsy interface. It just feels like an experiment that should have been left on the drawing board.The point of the phone, as I see it, was to have a touch screen phone appeal to people who really are not ready or willing to use a touch screen. It’s like all those other half assed limp wristed touch screen attempts (LG Dare, etc...) in that it doesn’t really add any functionality. You can’t do anything with the touch screen that you wouldn’t be able to do with a normal keyboard phone. It’s a phone that simply replaces a keyboard with touch screen without actually rethinking the interface.The first phone with a touch screen that worked was the iPhone, and I hate to sound like every other fan boy, but touch screen phones before it just sucked. The Pre is good, HTC’s recent attempts work too, but the storm just doesn’t. There is no need for the storm to have a touch screen.And why the hell would anyone want a phone that vibrates every time you touch it. When you first pick up the phone you think the touch screen is broken because it won’t do anything regardless of how many times you touch it, then you realize you literally have to push the screen in to get it to do anything. And when you push it in, it vibrates. The whole point of a touch screen is that you can use more than one finger at a time, move quickly, and gently across the screen, and get things done fast. Not with the storm. You get one touch at a time and you have to move slowly since you have to click each key. It’s a waste of time.The interface is just as slow as the typing too. If you open an app, you should set the phone down, take a quick nap and come back. Then you should be ready to go. And forget looking at pictures, if you try and slide across the screen to pull up the next photo it takes a week. And then while waiting for the picture you, slide your finger again, thinking the phone just didn’t listen the first time. Then you skip the picture you wanted to see, and have to wait another week to go back to it.If I was offered the choice of using this phone everyday or being forced to make a fire by rubbing two sticks together and use smoke signals to contact my friends, I would choose the later. Not only would it be less stressful, it would be a damn sight quicker too.Save yourself from the misery, buy another phone, anything else, please.

The HTC Hero is Alive

2009-06-25T16:30:00.010-04:00

HTC’s new android based phone is called the Hero, and its here. After lots of speculation as to when it would arrive HTC unveiled the Hero yesterday in London. The Hero will be available in Europe next month and Asia later in the summer but won’t arrive in the US until later this year.

This phone is important for two rather obvious reasons; the OS, and the quality of the handset itself.

First the OS, it’s the first custom implementation of Android on a phone since the release of the operation system over a year ago. The custom implementation has been nicknamed Sense, but there’s more than just a cute moniker here, Sense consists of real improvements and advancements to the Android platform. There’s also the import business of flash. This is the first Smartphone to have Flash working, and it’s a full two months before Adobe’s own flash solution debuts.

Check out HTC’s video walkthrough of the new features of the Hero and see just how improved Android is.

Now the hardware part of the equation. Well the phone is clearly the best HTC has ever done, but things are not so easy. HTC doesn’t operate in a vacuum, it’s got iPhone’s and Pre’s to compete with. Like all other HTC’s before it (Dream and Magic) it looks cool. It’s simple without being plain, and exciting without being flashy. Its got the same basic rectangular shape as the HTC’s the preceded it but should certainly be a bit more robust than the swing out trickiness that is the Dream.

The signature HTC “Chin” is no longer Jay Leno, it’s a bit more restrained, a bit more refined, a bit more George Clooney if you will. Improvements to the capacitive touch screen along with multi-touch abilities should keep phone users happy. The phone features vibration feedback for the touch screen similar to the Blackberry Storm’s, although it is a bit more subtle than the Storm’s often annoying seizures.

Overall, I’d say it’s a very solid offering from HTC. I do still think their handsets have a bit of a cheap feeling to them, a sort of home made sensation about the quality, but things are getting better. The touch screen is improvement, the button arrangement is more logical, and the phone is also a bit prettier than other HTC attempts. The jury is still out on whether this is a real threat to the iPhone – Pre – Blackberry dominated industry, but it’s certainly a more formidable opponent than the Dream was.

iPhone OS 3.0 – The good, the better, and the utterly amazing

2009-06-24T14:48:00.010-04:00

The new iPhone OS, version 3.0, has been out for exactly a week to date, and after some thorough testing, I’m happy to report it’s all good news.
The OS packs lots of new features, some of which are only available on the new iPhone 3GS, but most of which are for everyone with an iPhone. I have been very tempted to sell my old iPhone, to CashMyMobile.com - a website I found that lets you trade in your old phone for cash, and replace it with a 3GS. But I figured I would try OS 3.0 for a week before I laid down my hard earned cash. The upgrade is free to anyone with an iPhone.

The big features are MMS (coming soon to AT&T), voice recording app, copy & paste, and Spotlight search.

MMS is going to be awesome once AT&T finally get their act together and get it working. No more stupid codes to remember whenever someone send you a picture message, and you can finally show your friends what your up to with a quick picture or even send a voice recording if you want. It’s a feature that has been missing for way too long and its nice Apply finally got around to giving us this elemental cell phone feature.

Voice recording app – to me this is nothing more than a novelty, lots of my phones before the iPhone had this feature, and I never used it…EVER. I just don’t see the point, does anyone really leave themselves voice notes these days? I’d rather just use a note, task list, calendar event, or email. But I guess for exactly 7 people out there this will be a very nice and productive application. For the rest of us, it will occupy that bottom space on your last homepage screen.

Copy & Paste – Finally, that’s all I have to say. People have been begging for this since the day the phone came out, and after wasting time with silly voice recording apps, Apple has decided its time to build copy and paste. It works just like you would expect, it lets you copy pretty much any text and paste it anywhere with ease. It’s a nice feature to have and it makes some tasks much easier.

Spotlight search – This is a feature that will probably be very nice for lots of users but not much help for others. Personally I don’t really use the search feature all that much. I know what songs I have or where the email is that I am trying to locate. I keep things as organized as possible and just don’t seem to really need search all that often. However, I have used it on a couple occasions and it works quiet well, it’s shockingly fast for a phone with only 400 MHz processor.

Other stuff – Aside from the big improvements, there are literally hundreds of subtle changes ranging from the most minute font size change, to the ability to use landscape keyboard in mail, messages, and notes.
Some of my favorite new features
- Landscape keyboard in pretty much any app
- Ability to send multiple pictures in a single email (this one really saves me a lot of time)
- No size limit on podcast downloads over 3G. I hate having to remember to download a podcast for my morning commute the next day and if I forget I’m limited to quick little 10mb downloads that last about 2 min. Now I can download anything I want to listen to no matter where I am.
- Sync Notes – I use notes pretty extensively as a sort of To Do list, so its nice to finally be able to keep track of it all from more than one place.

Overall, I have to say the 3.0 upgrade is clearly worth your time, I mean its free and it has new features so you don’t really need me to tell you to upgrade. But is it going to stop you from wanting a 3GS, well I would say a little bit. You still miss out on the better camera, video recording, and the compass, and of course the speed among other things. If you are eligible for an upgrade at the $199 price, then I would say do it, otherwise I just don’t think those few improvements are worth $399

Battle of the Blackberries: Curve 8900 vs Bold 9000

2009-06-23T16:25:00.010-04:00

The Blackberry Curve 8900 and the Blackberry Bold are like a pair of twins, fraternal not identical that is. While they are roughly the same size, similar design, and contain mostly the same parts, there are some key differences.

Physically – Despite the fact that the two phones are roughly the same size, the Curve feels noticeably smaller and more comfortable in the hand. I think it has mostly to do with the curvature of the, err… Curve. It just works, however they shaped it, it just feel right in your hand. While the bold doesn’t exactly feel awkward, it just doesn’t feel as natural.

Visually – This is probably the area with the most difference between the phones. I think the bold looks a bit more exciting, but a bit cheaper as well. The shiny silvery plastic ring that surrounds the phone just doesn’t have that same level of class and quality that the brushed metal rim of the Curve does. The Bold seems like a phone built for a teenage while the Curve is meant for people who don’t want to be embarrassed by their phone.

The Screen – The screen on the bold, while just slightly larger actually has less resolution. The screen on the Curve is much more vivid and packs in more pixels per inch. Watching a moving is not going to be satisfying on either one but the screen on the Curve is just the tinniest bit nicer to look at.

The Guts – This is the part you can’t see, but arguably the part that matters the most. I’ll just run through the list of differences and let you decide what matters most to you

The way I see it, the choice is pretty simple, just get the curve. Unless 3G means the world to you, then I guess you would choose the Bold.

Beware of Buying Blackberries Online

2009-06-22T16:17:00.007-04:00

Today’s article is not going to be a review of a new phone or an explanation of some newfangled technology, no – today is going to be an attempt to save you from getting scammed, plain and simple.

We all like to shop around, whether it is online or in a store, to try and find the best possible price, there are even some websites dedicated solely to that purpose. But what those websites won’t tell you is that buying a phone from anyone other than an authorized dealer can be very dangerous, specifically buying a Blackberry phone. Buying a Blackberry is a little different than buying any other phone for 8 simple little reasons. Its called a PIN number and its made up of 8 characters displayed underneath the battery cover right next to the IMEI number. The pin is used in conjunction with the IMEI to identify each unique Blackberry device.

When you unpack your new phone inevitably you will be looking to activate a data plan for your phone, after all it’s the reason you bought a BlackBerry and not just a Motorola Razr, and when you try to activate a data plan they will ask for your PIN number. After giving your service provider your PIN, your job is done and your new phone is working perfectly, except it isn’t and your not sure why. The PIN is blocked you see, and without a working PIN you can’t use any data plan on your phone, and then what your left with is a larger and more bulky overprice Razr.
PIN numbers can get blocked or “locked” for any number of reasons such as, the phone was reported stolen, the phone was claimed to be lost, or the phone is still registered under another user.

When you see Blackberry phones for sale at an incredible price, it’s almost certain they have blocked PIN numbers. Sure some retails can offer the phones at a discount, but if you see Blackberries for half price, something should stand out in your mind that this is “too good to be true”, and it is. Phones with blocked PINS are usually stolen, and there for can be sold for much less, only problem is they don’t really work. Sure they work great when it comes to making phone calls, but that’s about it. But what’s the point of a Smartphone that can only make calls?
So be sure to purchase your Blackberry from a trusted retailer, my personal favourite – OnlineCellShop.com has good prices, and even better service.

Apple iPhone on the Verizon Wireless Network

2009-06-19T10:31:00.004-04:00

Can I use an iPhone with Verizon? It’s a question I hear all the time, and the quick answer is an emphatic NO. But why? Well the answer to that question has a couple parts.

First we need to look at the hardware hidden away inside the iPhone. You see it all has to do with a simple little acronym, GSM or Groupe Spécial Mobile. In 1982 Groupe Spécial Mobile was created by the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations as a way to standardize an up and coming technology, Wireless Phones. The group established standards which now dominate the cell phone market. Nearly 80% of cell phones in the world operate under GSM standards, that’s over 3 billion people and more than 212 countries to be specific. Its what allows you to take your phone and travel overseas without trouble. Your phone simply works…pretty much everywhere. That is of course unless you use Verizon.

Verizon uses something called CDMA2000; it’s actually a newer and more efficient technology than GSM, but not nearly as popular. CDMA allows more calls to be handled by each cell site, its why Verizon service is so good in really dense areas like NYC. CDMA coverage is scattered around the globe with a few countries having a small amount of CDMA coverage. The major place CDMA is used is in China. It’s the standard adopted by China Unicom, the third largest wireless provider in the world.

When Apple was designing the iPhone they wanted to make sure they got it right the first time. They wanted to expand their global brand with a phone that could be sold all over the world, and GSM technology would guarantee them that success. Unfortunately this meant that the iPhone could never support CDMA, it’s an issue that reaches into the depths of the hardware of the phone, and no amount of effort can change that. If anyone tries to sell you an iPhone “unlocked for Verizon” they are lying to you, no two ways about it.

The future of the iPhone and Verizon however, is not so clear cut. Years ago when apple was looking for a carrier to become the exclusive distributor of the iPhone they approached Verizon. And in a decision that is surely regretted to this day, Verizon turned them down. Not willing to succumb to Apple’s demanding terms, Verizon made a move that would go on to loose them their stranglehold on the US market. But the relationship between the iPhone and Verizon might not always be a tale of great folly, there are rumors abound that they two giants may be able to come together to create a Verizon iPhone. The details are sparse and there are many obstacles in their way. For one Apple would need to create an iPhone that supports CDMA. Additionally Apple already has signed an exclusive contract with AT&T barring them from selling the iPhone through any other carrier. But internet hopefuls have pointed out that the exclusive contract is only for the “iPhone” and not every phone produced by Apple. Some say that a new CDMA phone, with a different name, might just be able to sneaks its way past AT&T’s strong armed lawyers. At least it gives hope, a little flicker of light, however dim, to Verizon subscribers everywhere.

Should You Upgrade To the New iPhone 3GS?

2009-06-17T09:58:00.017-04:00

The big news this past week has been the iPhone 3GS, Apple unveiled the new phone at WWDC and everyone has been clamoring to get their hands on one. AT&T is already sold out of pre-order phones and lines are already starting to form at Apple stores. But what if you already have an iPhone or even an iPhone 3G. Is it worth the cost to upgrade, what about the wait, do you really want to stand on line again for 6 hours just got get a phone?

Lets take a more in-depth look at what new features the iPhone 3GS really has over older iPhones.

The chart above shows the main differences between the iPhone 3G and 3GS. And what it really comes down to is speed and the camera. The camera on the iPhone 3G, while good in situations with lots of light, is terrible at just about everything else. Low light, close-ups, fluorescent light – it can’t deal with any of them. Don’t forget that the 3GS is also capable of video recording, a handy feature we will all appreciate, especially with the ability to upload directly to youtube. This phone is going to spawn a new era of even more pointless youtube videos.
The 3GS also has a processor which is twice as fast, and twice as much memory. This will no doubt help with running games with better graphics, but just how much will it help with everyday operations on the phone, well its tuff to say. It will most likely be a noticeably increase in performance, but will it prevent those annoying 30 seconds hangs when exiting youtube? We’ll have to wait and see.

Sure, the new phone comes with a compass, which is nice for those times when you exit the subway and are not sure where you are pointed, but its not worth getting a whole new phone just for a compass. The majority of the other enhancements will come with OS 3.0 which will be available for ALL iPhones.

The one annoying thing is that the new OS will not support voice control on the 3G, only the 3GS. Apple claims this is because the old phone doesn’t have the power to handle the required processor work to allow voice control, but that sounds like a load of BS. My 5 year old Samsung was able to do voice control, yet unable to play 3D video games like an iPhone – Come on Apple, the iPhone 3G really can’t do voice control or you just won’t let it.

If you still have the original iPhone, then you have more reason now then ever before to update you phone. You will experience significant increase in battery life, GPS, better Camera, faster processor and more memory. You can also get 16gb or 32gb of storage, which may be up to 8 times what you have now (for those of you hanging on to a 4gb phone). Plus you’ll be eligible for the upgrade price of $199 and $299. Not a bad deal. Above is an excerpt from an AT&T document showing the most important differences between the orignal iPhone and the 3G