Author: PhoneDog.com – Latest videos, reviews, articles, news and posts

Great, another tech company has filed another suit full of patent infringement claims against a competitor. Yawn. Get over it, it happens every day, move along already. Or at least direct your anger at the system that demands these legal battles, and not the businessfolk who engage in them.

The downer about Apple’s suit against HTC … and Nokia’s suit against Apple that preceded this one, and NTP’s patent suit against RIM that was settled back in ’05, and all of the consumer tech patent suits that came before those (including TiVo vs EchoStar, remember that one, DirecTV fans?)… is that companies who have to sink resources into fighting lawsuits wind up with less time, energy, money, and people-power for innovation. And in the end consumers suffer along with their favorite gadgetmakers, since innovation drives product, and good products drive sales.

We still buy products because they’re good, right? And not out of some sports team-cum-nationalistic blind allegiance for or against any particular brand name. Right? Maybe?

Likely governments shouldn’t be granting patents on user interfaces and other common elements of mobile phone design. The notion that something like “Swipe to Unlock” is patentable is, well, pretty laughable. But you know what? The Patent Office granted Apple the patents, and so Apple has a right – and a duty to its shareholders – to defend them according to the rules of U.S. and International law. Just as NTP and Nokia had the right/duty to protect their patents. It’s a boring, resource draining, ugly cycle – but it’s how the game is played.

Yes, it’s all pretty ridiculous. And, yes, it feels like schoolyard bully posturing. And, yes, it all smacks of fallout from the end of Steve and Eric’s star-crossed love affair. But it’s the same story that’s made and broken many a business many times over.

If you want to complain about something, don’t bother complaining about Apple this or Nokia that. Complain about the methods and standards used by patent offices and courtrooms to dole out patents, laws, and other rules and procedures that govern big business and “competition” in the 21st Century marketplace. NTP, Nokia and Apple are no more or less evil than any of their competitors when it comes to seeking out and defending patents. They’d be fools not to do so, unless the rules of competition are changed. Hate the Game, don’t hate the player, right?

Don’t for a second think that I’m happy about Apple making HTC a pawn in their growing megawar with Google. The last thing I want is anything getting in the way of HTC showing off their new handsets at CTIA later this month, Apple readying iPhone OS 4.0 for (hopefully) a June launch, or Google getting their de-fragmentation of Android underway and pushing out 2.1 upgrades to all current U.S. handsets. I want innovation, I want better products, and I want continued and growing support for the handsets and services companies have already sold us on. I don’t want legal wrangling getting in the way of consumer “goods,” in the most literal sense of the word.

And yet, while I’m disappointed in Apple and Google (don’t give me that “Do No Evil” nonsense – Google’s in it to win it, period), I also can’t really blame anyone’s legal department for playing the game. If a national or international patent office granted my publicly traded company rights to a piece of intellectual property, you bet I’d have my legal eagles on the constant lookout for possible infringements on our turf.

Would I rather see Apple and HTC team up on a supergadget than spending their time filing court papers? Of course. Is that gonna happen any time soon? Of course not. Do the laws governing intellectual property and tech patents need some critical revisiting and, perhaps, rewriting? Seems like maybe they do.

But it’s all part of the process, and really, just another day at the office. Ten years ago everyone hated Microsoft for being an evil monopoly and rooted against them in courtroom showdowns.  Today Apple’s getting largely the same treatment. Likely it’ll be Google’s turn a few years hence.  And so it goes, for better or for worse.

In a statement that most in the wireless industry predicted, AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson said wireless customers that are heavy data users will eventually pay more for the service than others who use less.

Though Stephenson didn’t specify a date or pricing structure of the tiered data plans, he went on to say that the iPhone will be an important part of the company’s lineup for “quite some time.”  In a wide-ranging discussion at a Morgan Stanley conference in San Francisco, Stephenson said that he expects the iPad to be a “largely Wi-Fi-driven product” with the AT&T wireless network as a secondary connection option. 

The company is also continuing the push to improve coverage in New York City and San Francisco, two known AT&T trouble spots.  When asked about AT&T’s LTE rollout, he said that the company would start the rollout in 2011 and accelerate the pace in 2012.  “We’re not in a tremendous hurry,” he said, stating that AT&T’s current HSPA network should be sufficiently able to handle data for the next few years.

Hmm…tiered data?  How does that sound?

Via MarketWatch, PhoneArena
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Last week Palm announced they weren’t selling as many devices as anticipated, negatively impacting their projected sales.  CEO Jon Rubinstein claimed to have made the announcement early in an effort to “prevent a surprise for Wall Street when [they] announce quarterly earnings in March.”  Following all the news, Rubinstein sent out a company-wide email to ease the mind of employees, and presumably, to provide hope for the future.

So what comes next? A rumor of course, followed by a good helping of “advice” from various wireless industry analysts.  According to Computerworld, there’s been plenty of chatter about the possibility of Palm working with Sprint on a WiMAX (that’s 4G, if you didn’t know) capable phone in the not-so-distant future.  This isn’t difficult to believe, per se, based on Palm’s current relationship with the number three carrier, and Sprint’s desire to sell WiMAX to the masses. 

Analyst commentary, as is usually the case, goes in several different directions.  Some suggest that the 4G plan is a good one, while others say the real move is getting the GSM familly (read: AT&T and T-Mobile) on board–which is actually expected to happen later this year.  One analyst even suggested building a device that looks like an iPhone (Why so Apple can sue Palm too? Seriously?), because larger screens and more power seems to be the direction in which the consumer market is headed.

What do you think Palm should do? WiMax, GSM, iPalm, all of the above? Consumer Analysts, report below!

Via Computerworld, BGR, Gizmodo

Nokia and T-Mobile today announced the Nokia Nuron 5230, a mid-range touchscreen device that will land on the carrier this month.  Featuring a 3.2-inch touchscreen with 640 x 360 pixels, the Nuron 5230 offers Symbian S60 v5, a 2.0-megapixel camera with 3x zoom, Ovi Maps, a microSD card slot with support for up to a 16 GB card, 3.5mm headphone jack, GPRS/EDGE/HSDPA 3.6 Mbps, and 7 hours of talk time.

The full press release is below.  Care to pick one up when it launches in “the coming weeks?”

Nokia 5230 Nuron Delivers Apps, Maps and Free Navigation to T-Mobile USA Customers
Affordable 3G Touch-Screen Smartphone Offers Rich Mobile Experiences, Ovi Maps and Ovi Store
 
White Plains, NY and Bellevue, WA — March 3, 2010 – Nokia and T-Mobile USA today announced the upcoming availablility of the Nokia 5230 Nuron, a smartphone solution for the masses packed with applications, maps with turn-by-turn directions, and more. Operating on T-Mobile’s blazing-fast 3G network, the Nokia Nuron offers dynamic Web browsing and rich experiences on a 3.2” touch screen. The device is also the first pre-loaded with Ovi Maps, a free turn-by-turn navigation solution from Nokia, and the first to have the Ovi Store pre-loaded, giving consumers access to thousands of compelling applications and games. The Nokia Nuron is expected to be available in the coming weeks exclusively from T-Mobile.
 
“The Nokia 5230 Nuron is a great product of our collaboration with T-Mobile USA and provides consumers with more compelling mobile experiences as they navigate, watch video, play games and social network,” said Mark Slater, Vice President, Sales, Nokia. “The Nokia Nuron offers U.S. consumers a unique and compelling mobile experience that caters to their everyday needs and enables them to connect to their passions with an affordable 3G touch smartphone.”
 
The Nokia Nuron is a mobile solution that allows consumers to easily make their way around town, download content and applications to keep them entertained, or help to manage their busy lives. Consumers can keep up with friends and family via IM, text, personal or work e-mail, and offers the ability to easily surf the Web with a full HTML browser.
 
“Many of our customers are looking for smartphones that deliver a great mobile Web experience with access to games and applications, all at an affordable price,” said Travis Warren, director, product marketing, T-Mobile USA. “We are excited to partner with Nokia to offer our customers the Nokia 5230 Nuron, a 3G smartphone for the masses that delivers features like a full touch screen, free turn-by-turn navigation and a premium storefront for applications.”
 
The Nokia Nuron is the first U.S. carrier -supported Nokia smartphone to pre-load Ovi Maps, a solution from Nokia that offers consumers free turn-by-turn directions and navigation. Additionally, Ovi Maps makes it easy to discover great places to eat, concerts, movies and more with Lonely Planet guides. Other features include the ability to check the weather forecast and even share one’s current location on Facebook. With pedestrian navigation, Ovi Maps delivers the best routes through pedestrian zones and shortcuts as well as pathways through parks and buildings. Exploring the world or rediscovering your own city has never been easier or more fun with Ovi Maps.  Nokia Nuron also comes preloaded with maps for the USA, Canada and Mexico – with the ability to access to over 180 country maps at http://www.nokiausa.com/maps.
 
The Nokia Nuron will be the first device from a national U.S. carrier to come pre-loaded with Ovi Store by Nokia – giving consumers access to thousands of applications and other exciting content.
T-Mobile also plans to simplify the purchase experience for its customers and expects to enable them to pay for this great content by having it billed to their monthly bill or via a credit card.
To learn more about Ovi by Nokia, or for more information on how to develop for Ovi Store, please visit http://www.ovi.com and http://publish.ovi.com, respectively.
 
Availability
The Nokia 5230 Nuron is expected to be available on in the coming weeks in select T-Mobile retail stores and online at http://www.t-mobile.com. For more information, please visit http://www.nokiausa.com/NokiaNuron or http://www.t-mobile.com.
 
Use of some features or services may incur separate, additional charges and/or require a qualifying data plan. 3G coverage is available in locations nationwide, but may not be available everywhere. For more details on where T-Mobile network coverage is available, please visit www.t-mobile.com/coverage.

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You’re looking at pictures of what is said to be a prototype BlackBerry slider.  Though the device was initially thought to be a scrapped prototype, numerous news outlets are reporting that the device you see above is close to the final form of RIM’s first slider.  Rest assured, Storm haters – the device will not have SurePress, nor will it sport the “Storm” moniker.

An additional picture is below.  My take?  I’m not so sure that I like the design, as it’s conservative and very RIM-esque.  That being said, more than half of RIM’s userbase is now comprised of consumers, so it’s time to get out of the conservative designs and opt for something a bit more edgy and progressive.  We’ll be sure to bring you more information as we get it, but in the meantime, what do you think of the device in its current form?

Via BBerryDog, CrackBerry, BBLeaks
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Liberal Use of the Return Policy

I must admit to you that I am known as a bit of a geek. I’m a 29 year old corporate attorney from a suburb of Des Moines, Iowa and it’s not uncommon for someone to stop by my office, see my phone and ask what it is and how long I’ll be keeping that one.  I’ve got a bit of a history liberally using Verizon Wireless’ return policy and have tried just about every smartphone operating system they offer (so sadly, no iPhone).  That said, I’ve chosen to stick it out with the Android operating system on the HTC Droid Eris and really haven’t regretted that choice. 

First and foremost, I’ve traditionally used a smartphone for reading email (and occassionaly writing one) and, to a lesser extent making calls and sending text messages.  There are two basic requirements for my choosing a smartphone: 1) Good email service with a decent attachment viewing, and 2) Battery life that will get me through a full day. The Android-based Droid Eris with HTC’s Sense interface fills those requirements fairly well.  I will hold back on discussing other operating systems I’ve used in favor of a more in-depth discussion of Android and why it works for me.??Before I settled on the Eris, I used the Motorola Droid for a few weeks.  I loved the speed of the Droid, but could never get used to the slide-out keyboard and the overall weight of the device. And for some reason it would freeze and reboot on me about once per day (I think I got a lemon).  When I took the phone back in to return it, I played with the Eris for a few minutes.  I loved that it was thinner than the Droid, was much lighter, and that the Sense UI overlaying the stock Android OS was very nice to look at and seemed to offer some additional functionality that I could actually use.  A few days later, when Verizon started their BOGO (buy one, get one free) offer, I decided to take the plunge and get one for myself and one for my wife (her 1st smartphone).  I went from a phone that cost me $200 on contract to 2 phones that, after Verizon’s mail-in rebates, cost me $50 total.  The savings definitely made spending the additional monthly data fee for my wife a bit easier to swallow.  

Full disclosure: My wife is a teacher who travels to a couple of different schools every day so access to email on the go seemed like it would make her life a bit easier, and it definitely has. Additionally, there was a bit of friction brewing between us when I got a car with leather. Hers didn’t have leather, so she accused me of sticking her with the ‘base model’… I didn’t want her to have more ammunition by denying her a smartphone.??When I started customizing the Eris, I found that the Eris’ seven homescreen panels were a big improvement over the Droid’s three homescreen panels.  With the Droid, it seemed like I had to really pick and choose what widgets, shortcuts, and apps I put on my homescreen panels due to the limited area available for them. I found that I was constantly swapping items on and off of the homescreen panels.  With the Eris, there is plenty of space for widgets and shortcuts so I find myself swapping much less often.  As part of the Sense overlay, HTC has made available several exlclusive widgets that make Android a lot more accessable from the homescreen panels. Myself, I use the email preview widget, the music player widget, and the data toggle and wifi toggle widgets.  I’ve tried out most of the others and have found that I have little use for them and that using too many makes my battery life suffer.  In a future column, I’ll describe some replacement apps and widgets that I’ve obtained from the Android Marketplace that I’ve found really useful. Most of them are free (which I love because I’m really cheap).

Priority One: Email

The Eris really beats the pants off of most of the other smartphones that I’ve used when it comes to one of my priorities in a smartphone: Email.  Prior to the Eris, I used a Blackberry Pearl for two years, and then tried out a couple of Windows Mobile smartphones on Verizon.  The accessibility of the email functions on the Eris is as good or better than any of the other phones I’ve tried.  

With the Blackberry, I was using Blackberry Internet Service, which resulted in a delay for incoming mail of up to 15 minutes.  The Eris uses Activesync for corporate MS Exchange-based email and supports both POP and IMAP email.  I also use Google Apps for a couple of accounts and the integration of my Exchange-based email and three IMAP-based Google Apps accounts is great.  Email comes in as fast or faster on my phone than it does on desktop software that I use to access those same accounts.  Android also has a separate Gmail app which allows Gmail to operate like Gmail is supposed to operate.  I am a Gmail user, but the vast majority of my email volume comes in on my corporate and Google Apps accounts and I am very happy with the usability of those accounts on Eris.  

A big benefit of the Eris’ corporate email system over that of Droid is the ability to use a different email signature in each email account.  That capability may not sound like a big deal, but it saves so much time in not having to type out your name, company & contact info in each email.  As an attorney, I create and review a lot of documents, so the ability to view attachments would sound like a vital function on my smartphone. However, I’ve found that because I work at my desk so much, I rarely use the attachment viewer on my Eris.  When I do use it, it’s usually to look at PDF documents.  Android’s PDF viewer is so much better than those on the Blackberry OS and even Windows Mobile phones I’ve tested before.  Documents download fast on Eris and you can use multitouch to zoom in and move around anywhere in the document.  For MS Word (.doc) documents, a version of Quickoffice is used.  Multitouch is not available in Quickoffice, and the program re-formats the text to fit the selected zoom level, which sadly prevents me from reviewing formatting – a vital piece of any document for an attorney. 

Priorty Two: Battery Life 

Battery life on the Eris is great the way I use the device.  I was a bit less certain about this during the first few weeks as I settled in and found a sort of a rhythm for the way in which I use the email system, twitter, rss feed reader, and media player.  Now, at the end of each day I usually have about 50% battery life remaining.  This gives me great comfort that if I use the phone in a heavier than normal way on any given day, I’m still going to have enough juice to last until I get back to a charger at night.  Two days of battery is out of the question, though, unless I toggle data off while sitting at my desk during the day and again while I’m sleeping. It’s amazing to watch how much battery life the data function actually drains from the phone.??I can feel your eyes starting to glaze over so I’ll wrap up this first column.  I’ll focus future posts on my experiences with other parts of the Android and Sense systems as well as apps and widgets I’ve tried.  I’ll also try to give a critique of the Android OS some thoughts on how I would improve the user experience. 

Until then, Android users and Eris users, what about you? How do you all like your smartphones?

One of…no, the most common complaint about RIM’s BlackBerry operating system is how boring it is.  It’s not jaw-dropping, nor does it beat webOS, iPhone, or Android at much (beyond messaging, which it is fantastic at).  That being said, I think RIM realizes the need to innovate in order to be successful, and I think they’re working on it for OS 6.0.

During the “Super Apps” portion of RIM’s webinar for developers last week, the company showed off a Storm unit that was sporting a completely different OS than what we’re used to.  That being said, the official position of the company is that the picture was intended for mockup purposes only.  There are a few features in the picture above that I’d like to see in RIM’s next generation OS, however. 

Could this be an OS 6.0 image in disguise?  Guess we’ll find out someday.

Via Engadget

Billed as the latest series of devices from the Finnish manufacturer, the C-Series is intended to be Nokia’s “core range of products.”  In other words, it’ll be the manufacturer’s mid-range device lineup.  The other series will remain the same, with the N-Series appealing to tech enthusiasts, the E-Series geared toward business users, and the X-Series for social networking.

The first model in the series will be the C5.  The device will feature a 2.2-inch QVGA display, 3.2-megapixel camera, 3.5mm A/V slot, GPS, Ovi apps, a microSD card slot, S60 3rd Edition, and 12 hours of talk time.  The C5 will be available in the second half of 2010 in Europe, Eurasia, and China for about $182.

They’re not the most feature rich phones in Nokia’s lineup, but for $182, it sounds like a reasonable deal to me.

Via PhoneArena, BGR

 

Got an iPhone? Like yourself some wine? Wish you could get your iPhone to help you find some better wines, and pair those Syrahs, Gewurtzes, and Barolos with the right foods? NatDecants can help, or so Nat (Natalie MacLean, “World’s Best Drink Writer”) claims.

But is the #1 wine app on iTunes all it’s cracked up to be? Maybe … or maybe not. Matt Stratton found it “useful” but only gave it three out of five stars. Check out the full writeup over on Today’s iPhone.

Noah explains SXTing to Larry and Sarah.

After Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, we figured that the CLIQ XT would be the natural successor to the Motorola CLIQ.  Though the general consensus was that it would appear on T-Mobile first (in the States, at least), the folks at AndroidCentral have received pictures of a T-Mobile-branded CLIQ XT.

The fact that these pictures are surfacing on the internet probably means that a lower level employee (store manager, inventory specialist, etc.) has received the device and is playing with it.

For a better look, check out our hands-on video below.  Who’s eagerly awaiting this bad boy?

{Widget type=”youtube” id=”z-BPVrU-E0Q&”}

Via MobileCrunch, AndroidCentral
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In a statement released today, prepaid carrier Virgin Mobile USA announced that the Helio brand would be terminated as of May 25, 2010.  To recap, Virgin Mobile USA purchased Helio in June of 2008 after the latter spent $710 million and was ready to shut their doors.  After the purchase, the company assumed that Helio’s postpaid services would serve as a great conduit for those that liked Virgin and the brand, but didn’t want prepaid.

Needless to say, after the buyout by Sprint, Helio’s postpaid services didn’t make a lot of sense.  It’s not clear what will happen to Helio (Virgin) postpaid accounts.  Interestingly enough, customers won’t be migrated to Sprint right away:

No customer will be automatically migrated to Sprint’s postpaid service. However, Sprint has created a special offer for our customers.

Current postpaid customers are being given $50 towards the purchase of a Sprint postpaid handset with a new two-year agreement. This credit is in addition to any applicable rebates that may apply. Postpaid customers moving from Virgin Mobile to Sprint will also receive $150 off of handsets as part of Sprint’s standing new customer offer. Activation fees will also be waived.

On the one hand, I understand, yet on the other hand, it makes me sad to see the Helio brand go.  I always thought the brand had a lot of promise.  If only the business operations were executed properly…

Via MobileCrunch
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There’s a rumor floating around suggesting that ALL U.S. Android phones will eventually be updated to version 2.1, most of which will receive the update sometime in Q2 2010.  The source of the rumor also suggests that because of the limitations of the varying devices, some features (such as live wallpapers) will be missing from certain phones.  Additionally, some, if not all, devices will require a complete memory wipe in order to receive the update.

Something to keep in mind is that “ALL Android phones” is a pretty lofty goal, considering that the first generation Android phones (G1, myTouch) are pretty old by technology standards.  It’s also difficult to believe that the hardware could support the update and still run smoothly.  Gizmodo expresses this sentiment in a recent post:

“Sorry to rain on your parade, G1 owners and the like, but after giving this rumor a second pass we’re quite sure that it’s impossible that some of the older Android phones will get the 2.1 upgrade. Some of the older hardware just can’t support all the functions, so while the Droid may not be the only handset to get a 2.1 update, it definitely won’t be universal for all U.S. Android phones.”

As with most rumors, it’s impossible to say who’s right at this point, so we’ll take it all with a grain of salt and let time be the ultimate judge.  Hit the comments with your thoughts!

Via AndroidandMe, Gizmodo

With all the news surrounding the future release of Windows Phone 7 Series, people are beginning to wonder what will happen to their current Windows Mobile phones in the wake of WP7S’s release.  The big questions are: “Is my phone capable of being upgraded to the new operating system?” and “Will my phone still be supported?”

The answer to the first question is yes and no.  Yes, if your current phone meets the VERY specific requirements that Microsoft has in place for WP7S, your phone will be eligible for an update, however, ultimately it will be left up to Microsoft’s hardware partners.  On the other hand, no, there is not a WinMo phone in existence (based on the somewhat limited knowledge we have of the requirements) that meets all of the necessary criteria to be called a WP7S phone.  The HTC HD2 is probably the closest you’ll come to an eligible device, however, one reason why it will never see the WP7S OS is the fact that it has five buttons instead of the dedicated three Microsoft requires.

According to Natasha Kwan, Microsoft’s General Manager for Mobile Communications Business in the Asia-Pacific market, “Because we have very specific requirements for Windows Phone 7 Series the current phones we have right now will not be upgradable.”  Kwan also said of the HTC HD2 that it “doesn’t qualify because it doesn’t have the three buttons.”

To answer the second question (Will my phone still be supported?), the answer is a definitive yes.  Microsoft intends to upgrade the current 6.5 OS to 6.5.3, and give it the new name Windows Phone Classic.  “We think there are people who will want 6.5, and the 6.x platform has a lot of enterprise and line of business apps,” said Kwan.  She also mentioned that the upgrade from 6.5 to 6.5.3 “will enhance the experience for 6.5 users.”

So there you have it, a brief glimpse into the future of Windows Mobile or Windows Phone Classic, if you prefer.  What does the future hold for you?

Via BGR, APC

New York Minute #1

It’s incredibly useful having an iPhone in New York City. I would give out iPhones instead of maps at my Concierge desk if I could (I’m a Concierge at a major hotel in midtown Manhattan). In a perfect world, everyone would have their own iPhone. Lady Gaga would also do private performances for me and my husband Brad Pitt, but that’s another column. The amount of NYC-based apps available on the App Store is impressive and has vastly improved my otherwise mundane life of eating, drinking, shopping and socializing in the best city in the world.

The iPhone turns a big city like NYC into a small village by connecting us through apps. Foursquare in particular has been largely responsible for bringing together a community of like-minded people checking in at locations and taking advantage of special offers. Check in enough times at one spot and you’re appointed Mayor (or Town Alky as your friends may see it). An app called SquarePik allows you to add pictures or video to your Foursquare check-in but so far the app is in its early stages and has been quite buggy. My favorite app for pictures is Hipstamatic which gives your pics an old, tattered look like Coney Island of yore, the likes of which would make Mary-Kate Olsen proud. Tourists can use Sitorsquat to find the closest bathroom, which can be immeasurably helpful if UrbanDaddy sent you to Chipotle for dinner the night before. 

How did we ever survive before iPhones? As I sipped a cocktail at The Summit Bar the other night and watched Hamid, the owner, change the song on on the bar’s computer-based stereo using the Remote app, I laughed over the thought of my future kids one day making fun of me for being born before Grand Theft Auto:Chinatown Wars. What a long, strange trip it’s been.  

New York Minute #2

As I traipse through the slushy streets of Manhattan clutching my shattered iPhone, I relive the moments of that night a week ago when this tragedy could have been prevented with a simple “no thanks!” to those Jager shots. 

We were at Central Bar in the East Village and after checking in on Foursquare, I joined my friends from Rockstar Games at the bar. It was a reunion of sorts and a celebratory drink was in order. After a round (or three) of shots, I proceeded to get very excited about an idea my friend was explaining, and I jumped up and down like a big drunken dork. My precious iPhone flew out of my blazer pocket and, almost in slow motion, floated gracefully to the floor. Just kidding. It smashed against the painted black concrete like an easter egg that never had a chance. I picked it up slowly, upside down, praying that I could psychically alter the inevitable outcome… Alas! The Jedi mind trick didn’t work this time and the screen gave me the sad spiderweb face as I turned it to face me.

It’s been a week since it happened and I haven’t fixed my precious phone yet. Partially because it still works, despite the cracked screen, but mostly because I’m afraid to part with my iPhone for even half a day. iPhone addiction much? What if I want to take a picture of something hilarious, like the crosswalk stop signal that is missing all it’s fingers except the middle one? Or check-in at some supercool speakeasy and make my friends jealous? These are the things I toil over. Tough life, eh?  

The Apple Store’s $215 price tag for popping off a screen and putting on a new one seems a bit hefty to me. So after some research, I found that TekServe in Chelsea would be happy to give me a shiny new screen – while I wait – for a mere $119. See you soon, Apple geeks of TekServe. I heart you. 

 

I didn’t get to go to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year, but I did watch RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis explaining RIM’s place in the smartphone world on Youtube. I was reminded of my Dad telling me the “Facts of Life” on a holiday in the south of France when I was twelve.

Like everyone else I had already heard all about sex from friends at school. They made it sound exciting, novel, and essentially all about “me.” Dad made it sound like an onerous responsibility to be borne when I grew up and was married. In businesss-speak, my friends talked about sex from the consumer’s perspective…my Dad from the manufacturer’s.

This is the difference between Steve Jobs and Mike Lazaridis.

While Steve Jobs portrays an exciting new world of infinite promiscuous opportunity on the iPhone, Lazaridis is talking up the data transmitting efficiency of the Blackberry OS. He talks not of apps and photos and fun, but about how we have to conserve limited bandwidth resources and how robust and secure the Blackberry servers are for corporations.

Jobs is all about the consumer (me), and Mike, apparently, is all about the carrier and the corporation (them).

Lazaridis’ presentation is about 20 minutes long and has only been viewed by a few thousand diehards (compared to millions who tune into Apple launches) but he makes some interesting and seemingly very sensible points. For all I know he could well be right in predicting a bandwidth crunch that will make Blackberry a necessity in the marketplace, and he clearly thinks he knows what side his bread is buttered on (his bread has always been buttered by big enterprise and the carriers).

But for the moment, at least, he is backing the wrong horse.

Thanks to the Apple iPhone consumers are driving the train now. The carriers have all cottoned on, and the corporations will inevitably follow.

By rights Blackberry should be doomed, destined to inevitable extinction at some point in the future as the CTOs of the world’s corporations slowly succumb to the urgings of their employees to allow other OSs onto their servers. When Blackberry was the only act in town, and when email was all you used it for, their position seemed impregnable. But the world changed, the internet became the killer app and Blackberry hasn’t really been able to change with it – as countless versions of the ‘Curve’ and the drab Blackberry Web browser have attested to.

Of course Blackberry handsets “do” all the things other smartphones do, it’s just that they don’t do it with the same flair or verve…and that’s the rub. Blackberrys are great email machines, are easy to use, and are still selling in the non-contract arena where they aren’t up against the best new smartphones. Talk of a crossover into the consumer arena is premature, however, and will be killed by the dramatically accelerating adoption of Android by the mainstream.

No amount of Black Eyed Peas sponsorship is going to change that.

Even business users want a bit of multitouch coolness these days. Judging by Lazarids’ presentation in Barcelona, Blackberry’s strategy is to stick to the strict engineering efficiency that has made it so popular with our mobile ‘parents,’ the carriers and the corporations. The need to address the specter of an Apple monopoly has won over the carriers to Android. Pester power will eventually win over the corporations. All Apple and Android have to do is get their phones to handle multiple email accounts properly and they’ll be driving the nail in Blackberry’s coffin.

Blackberry will always be able to claim they were there first, but then again so was the Sony Walkman.

 

So Wither RIM?

Maybe RIM should partner up with Microsoft. Either through a sale or a joint venture of some sort.

Microsoft shocked the mobile world at MWC by demonstrating a new OS that wasn’t total rubbish (while shooting themselves in the foot by telling us it won’t be available ‘til the fall. Duh!). Microsoft and RIM are natural bedfellows with hooks deep into global enterprise — they are cut from the same cloth.

RIM makes pretty efficient handsets backed up by a solid and respected ecosystem and Microsoft have been beetling away to produce a good OS. Working together they might just be able to pull together a handset with a sexy OS that corporations can pass on to their employees without making them feel ashamed in public.  

If they do that there’ll be life in the old dog yet.

At some point there is bound to be consolidation and fall out in the smartphone space and the carriers literally can’t afford to let Apple become too dominant. Hence they’re falling over themselves to release new Android handsets. The consolidation should be good for customers, and for the industry as a whole

If Microsoft and RIM combined then there would be a huge collective sigh of relief in America’s boardrooms and, potentially, some reasonably satisfied users, too.

Check out BestBuy Mobile for other cellular news, videos, and How To’s.

Noah gets AT&T’s first Android phone out of the box. The Motorola Backflip has a unique design and features Android 1.6 along with MotoBlur for your social networking needs.

Starting this week you’re going to see some new faces around these parts. I’m all kinds of excited about our bringing on a few new people to entertain, inform, and delight you with their opinions and insights.

You may already have watched Jon Quach’s first installment of the “Weekly Bone,” his roundup of the Week in PhoneDog. Jon’s a YouTube fixture with his videos for Tehkseven.net, and his style, personality and sense of humor make him a natural fit to try some videos for PhoneDog. Also, he’s Canadian, which is always nice.

Starting tomorrow you’ll see the first of our new weekly columnists. We’re going to try four new columns on for size, once a week scheduled on regular days so you can tune in like a TV show … well, like TV shows were before DVRs and iTunes downloads, anyway.

Tuesdays:

Andy will be bringing his years of industry insider experience to bear on his weekly take on what’s going on in mobile tech.

Kristi will bring us “New York Minute,” tales of a single gal and her iPhone as they galavant through the glam and seedyness that is New York City.

Wednesdays:

Nate brings a lawyer’s – and geek’s – perspective to life with Android.

Thursdays:

Julia “The Rotary Dialer” dives headfirst into her first experience with a cell phone, Verizon’s new Palm Pixi Plus.

I’m excited to bring some fresh perspectives to our pages, along with more and more from Aaron, Adriana, John, Sydney and yours truly. We’re not going anywhere. Instead, we’re bringing in a few new voices to lend even more perspective to mobile technology. Let’s face it: Smartphones are bigger than ever, and netbooks, smartbooks and tablet computers are only gaining in popularity, as well. With so many devices to cover from so many angles, it’s good to mix it up a bit from time to time.

So check out all of our new columnists – and Jon’s weekly videos – and let us know what you think. As always, when you like it we try to give you more. And in the meantime, we’ll be cooking up even more new things to throw your way in the months to come.

So what do you do when the Big Two gang up on you and launch unlimited plans for $69.99?  Tout the features that your $69.99 plan offers, of course.  Though you receive unlimited minutes with the Verizon and AT&T options, Sprint offers Any Mobile, Anytime, unlimited text messaging, unlimited data, and 450 minutes.

Dan Hesse will return to the airwaves later in the month to promote the company’s Everything plans.  Claiming that “our $69.99 is worth more than their $69.99,” he will position their offerings as a better value than the options from Verizon and AT&T.

Sounds like a challenge to me, so let’s do some math.  It’s time for PhoneDog Skool!  The breakdown and plan benefits are as follows:

Verizon & AT&T ($69.99):

-Unlimited minutes

Sprint ($69.99):

-450 minutes
–Any Mobile, Anytime (call any mobile number in the United States for free)
-Unlimited text messaging
-Unlimited data
-Sprint TV, Sprint Navigation

Comparable Verizon and AT&T plan: At least $99.98 (450 minutes for $39.99, unlimited data for $30, unlimited text messaging for $20, Navigation for $9.99)

In short, looks can be rather deceiving.  On a lighter note, will Hesse walk down yet another deserted street wearing a coat that’s mildly familiar?  Time will tell.

Via PhoneArena
Powered by Sprint 4G

AT&T’s first Android device, the Motorola Backflip, showed up at my doorstep this morning thanks to FedEx. The unboxing video is uploading, so in the meantime I’ve got a few out of the box first impressions for you.

Everyone’s asking about the design: Gimmick? Useful? Well, it’s kind of both. I’m not so sure that “keyboard on the outside” will be the next big thing in smartphone design, but it’s kind of interesting and it kind of works.

Design Pros:

– Big, roomy QWERTY board

– Trackpad on the back of the display is responsive and fairly intuitive to use

– Camera mounted on the flippable QWERTY board means the camera can face in (self-portraits) or out (normal photos)

Design Cons:

– QWERTY and touchscreen both remain exposed when phone is “closed up” and out of use

– When the phone is folded open, I keep accidentally tapping the trackpad when I reach to tap the touchscreen

– I wish the display was larger. The QWERTY board is so nice and wide that it actually makes the display feel smallish.

Otherwise:

– The design definitely allows for a larger QWERTY board, and the QWERTY is pretty good. Nicer action than Droid, if not quite as good as the best HTCs and LGs, but plenty wide and roomy.

– The phone itself is kind of laggy. Imagine using a Motorola CLIQ on T-Mobile, and you’ll know what it’s like to use this device. They’re basically the same in terms of what MotoBlur and Android feel like.

– For some reason the touchscreen on Backflip feels a bit “grippier” and less smooth to flick and scroll on than the Devour’s display.

– While Backflip is silver colored, the body is plastic and not aluminum like Devour. On the one hand, that means Backflip isn’t as luxurious feeling. On the other hand, that also means it’s lighter.

– This phone begs for some kind of video chat app. As I mentioned above, the camera is mounted on the QWERTY board and the QWERTY board flips from front to back, making self-portraits super easy (and addictive).

Unboxing video coming soon!