Phones

Sony Ericsson P1i business smartphone

If you’re in the market for a serious business oriented smartphone that is also stylish and gives you some personal ‘toys’, then look no further than the 3G Sony Ericsson P1i. The P1i is a touchscreen smartphone with a slew of connectivity options like GSM and UMTS, Bluetooth, IR port, modem, and USB.

For productivity, you have on-the-go document editing, calendar and contacts application, task lists and notes, and even handwriting recognition among many others. The e-mail application supports syncing back to an Exchange and a standard POP3 e-mail client.

For your personal life, you’ve got a built-in photo and video camera, video viewing, a music player, RSS feeds, and numerous applications. The video camera also integrates with the phone for video calls on UMTS networks! With a talk-time of up to 10hrs on GSM, this is perfect for business folks who don’t always get back to their homes every night to recharge.

Price: $354.95
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

iPhone 3G Launch and Network Problems

The long awaited iPhone 3G was released on Friday, July 11th. But what should have been a happy and joyous day for iPhone fans, ended up being an exercise in frustration for many.

AT&T’s insistence on trying to activate the phones in store taxed Apple’s authentication server (more info) and caused lines to move at a snail’s pace or sent buyers home with a phone only good for making emergency calls. During last year’s iPhone 1.0 launch Apple had everyone activate their own phone at home through iTunes.

Worse yet, AT&T outlets were allowed to sell far fewer phones that Apple Stores, forcing them to turn away customers who waited hours to get their hands on one. …

Openmoko launches Neo, Open Source Linux Mobile Phone

If you’re in the market for a smartphone that you can extend with potentially unlimited applications, are intrigued by the iPhone, really want an Android phone, but can’t wait, then take a look at the Neo FreeRunner which hits the (virtual e-commerce) street this weekend.

The Neo is arguably the first open mobile computing platform that is based on Linux. The 6.5oz phone itself boasts GSM (805/900MHz) network connectivity, a 480×640 VGA touchscreen, 802.11b/g WiFi, GPRS 2.5, Bluetooth 2.0, 128MB RAM and 256MB Flash, along with a microSD slot.

Openmoko expects to launch a full suite of applications next month that will go along with the dialing & SMS capabilities that the phone will initially ship with.

Gimme!

More info from the manufacturer

Price: $399.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

California cell phone dudes – time to headset up

Ok, you sun-worshipping CA folks – today is the day you must stop holding those cell phones while driving. Get yourself a headset, wired or wireless, as the brand new statewide law goes into effect. Did I mention it’s today?

Now whether you’re a fan or not, fact is that if you’re going to be talking on a cell phone call, then you need a headset. While I agree with JT that the law needs to be tougher, it’s a start. PS> please don’t text or e-mail while you’re driving. That’s just plain dumb, and you could end up having a Darwin Award after your name if you Murphy’s Law holds up.

Read on for some quick tips on searching for that elusive new Bluetooth headset since I’m sure you’re going to want to avoid the wires…

Nokia buys the rest of Symbian; will open source it

In a somewhat surprising, yet not so surprising move, Nokia bought up the rest of Symbian that it didn’t already own and will open-source the cell phone OS platform. Why? This is the strategy du jour in this age of Linux vs Microsoft, and now Android (Linux basically) vs iPhone/Win Mobile/Blackberry.

It’s a $410 million gamble for Nokia, but not a bad risk. Open-sourcing products many times results in amazing contributions and improvements to the products which in turn fuel sales of hardware, software and services surrounding that product.

Time will tell how Nokia fares. This writer thinks this will certainly help to keep Nokia firmly in the top tiers of the cell phone handset industry.

Nokia E61 smartphone

If you’re one of the, yes, many people who aren’t necessarily in love with either a Blackberry or an iPhone, and are considering other cool phones, take a look at the Nokia E61.

This is a business-oriented smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard and a huge 320×240 full-color screen. Apart from the touchscreen, this smartphone even has a mini joystick for navigation. No digital camera, but it has a miniSD memory card slot, a WiFi conn, not to mention UMTS, EDGE and Bluetooth support. Its browser even supports CSS and Javascript to make even the most broadband-centric website viewable.

Do yourself a favor and take a good look at this phone.

Gimme!

More info from the manufacturer
Price: $379.99 unlocked
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Sprint turns up the marketing juice for the Samsung Instinct

Sprint/Samsung is turning the dial up on marketing the brand new Instinct and is targeting the iPhone in saying that the Instinct is mainly just way faster. Well if their video demos are any indication, then it’s true. Here’s one comparing GPS functions (you can see the rest of the videos by looking at what’s related):

Loopt Coming Soon to the iPhone 3G

Wish you knew where your friends and family were at all times? Have you heard of Loopt yet?

Loopt is a mobile phone application that enables users to spy on see the location of their friends on an interactive map (see image below). The application also allows you to message friends in your general area and setup automatic alerts to notify you when friends are nearby. …

Cell Phone Radiation Level Guide

CNET has a very useful guide on their site showing how much RF energy your body absorbs from specific cell phone models when held up to your ear. While my phone (the now practically ancient Treo 700p) isn’t in the top 10, it’s still way up there with a 1.48W/kg SAR rating. SAR = Specific Absorption Rate.

Note to self – get a Bluetooth headset pronto. BTW, if you live in California, you have 2 weeks, before the “hands-free” law goes into effect banning driving and talking on a cell phone using your hand.

iPhone 3G announced by Steve Jobs for $199

The latest version of the iPhone, the long-awaited 3G version was announced yesterday at the Apple WWDC developer’s conference and get this, the 8GB version is only $199. Yes, there are going to be some miffed 1st gen iPhone owners out there. Oh well, Jobs is going to turn the world into an iPhone toting crowd yet.

Perhaps the most notable new feature is the built-in GPS. Here’s a rundown of the other new features (courtesy of our friends at Methodshop):

Scroll to Top