You Might "Krave" This Phone...and then you might not

There are people in this world who are sworn Motorola heads. And if you are said Motorola head, you may be wondering where the cell phone maker has been hiding while Apple, HTC, Palm, Blackberry, and LG have been heading the smartphone craze. Pessimists may have even thought that Motorola would be knocked off the map for good, having enjoyed great hype with the Razr (remember how popular that phone was when it first came out? Now they're a dime a dozen).

Well, all ye of little faith, I present to you: The Motorola Kraze, Motorola's latest attempt at keeping up with the competition.

The Kraze is a touchscreen phone with a transparent flip. Though the phone looks nice, we are left with the inevitable question: what for? Why would a touchscreen phone need a touchscreen flip screen that really does nothing for the design or usability of the phone?

And if you're looking for a smartphone, this isn't what you want. Though the Kraze offers HTML and web browsing and allows you to watch streaming video, your organizational applications are likely to be just like those of other Motorola devices. So you're basically dealing with a regular touchscreen mobile phone.

My advice? It's probably best for those who want to look cool without having much functionality. But honestly, you Verizon subscribers (because the phone is for the Verizon service) would really be much better off saving your money and investing in a Blackberry Storm.

I'm just sayin'.

Looking at the Lotus

If you thought Blackberry was going to be the only ones releasing a flip QWERTY cell phone, you probably thought just a little too soon.

In September, LG announced the release of their new LX600, otherwise known as the Lotus.

However, unlike the Blackberry Pearl Flip, the Lotus is not a smartphone; instead, it belongs more into the messenging category with the likes of the Sidekick.

This phone seems like it would be perfect for young adults who want a professional looking phone without all the extra applications that probably wouldn't be used anyway.

The Lotus is being released sometime this month to Sprint, so all you message senders be on the lookout for it.

Taking The Smartphone World By Storm

Just when you thought they were done making improvements, Blackberry comes and shows that they can at least keep up with the competition, if they don't surpass them. They have announced the prospective release of the Storm, which promises to be a top competitor with the likes of the iPhone and the highly anticipated G1.

The Storm incorporates some pretty interesting features. For starters, it has an accelerometer that changes the screen orientation from portrait to landscape and vice versa when you move the phone horizontally or vertically. It's got a 3.2 megapixel camera with 2x zoom and video recording. For those looking for speed and connectivity, the Storm supports quad-band EDGE technology.

A more interesting feature is the use of not one, not two, but three texting interface options. The user can either turn the phone horizontally to use a full QWERTY keyboard, or choose between Blackberry's standard keyboard or a numerical keypad (like what you see on regular non-QWERTY equipped phones) when you hold the phone vertically. These are helpful for situations when you may not be able to use both hands to text, or when a message is too long for you to type using multiple letter taps.

Probably the most interesting feature to me, though, is the prescence of visual voicemail much like the service offered by the iPhone. Visual voicemail allows you to see who left you a voicemail and gives you the option to listen to them in any order you wish. This is invaluable for those like me who despise checking their voicemail.

Specifics on release date and price are still unknown, but it is known that this phone will be available to the Verizon and Vodaphone networks around the holiday season.

Looks like some people will be getting very pleasant Christmas presents this year...

Samsung "Delves" Into New Territory

HTC. Blackberry. Palm. Apple.

What do these three names have in common? They're all pioneers of the smartphone movement. Even before the iPhone became immensely popular, Palm and Blackberry were establishing a solid domain in the cell phone market.

And now, Samsung is looking to hop on the smartphone bandwagon, introducing the Samsung Delve.

According to the Boy Genius Report, the Delve will have such features as a 3 inch touchscreen (the same size as the screen for the Sidekick LX, for those who want to compare), a 2 megapixel camera, an on-screen QWERTY keyboard, and A2DP Bluetooth, amongst other things.

The Samsung Delve is being released to US Cellular customers in mid-November, so all you US Cellularites be on the lookout for this.




Photo courtesy of the Boy Genius Report

Showing Some Ringtone Love

Do you remember, way back in the day, when ringtones were nowhere near as important as they are now? You had your 9 factory rings, and that was all you could choose from. People were content with this lack of selection because, well, that's all there was.

But, contentment with humans doesn't always last long, and soon people wanted more than the 2 pound cell phones with 3 bell rings. From that point, cell phones progressed to factory monophonic ringtones with simple melodies like "Happy Birthday" or "Brahm's Lullaby" or any of those other classic songs the phone companies resorted to. It was enough to satiate the hunger for new ringtones for a little while.

Alas, this was not to last either. Soon people wanted popular songs. So, for the low price of $1.49 per ringtone, a person could purchase super cool polyphonic ringtones with songs that may not have necessarily been the newest releases but were certainly better than the classics of the day before.

Now, for the rather hefty price of $2.49, you can get short (and rather insufficient) clips of the newest arrival songs, with quality good enough to actually sound like the song itself and not just a keyboard rendering of it.

Now, for those of us poor souls with a Sidekick, the following information won't apply. But for those who have phones with mp3 ringtone capability, you might want to hop over to makeownringtone.com. All you have to do is upload a song from your computer, select the portion of the song you want, and voila! You have your very own ringtone sent to your phone.

The best part about it is that it's completely free.

I'm not getting paid to share this information...I just look back on my days with my Razr and remember how fun it used to be to create my very own ringtones that I could play for my friends with pride. You, too, can feel that pride.

What A Cool Idea

Whoa.

The wonderful people at Gadget Lab have unveiled a new prototype: a magnetic phone.

That's right. The phone actually comes in two pieces that you can connect in any way that's most comfortable for you. Want a flip phone? Boom, you've got it. Prefer the QWERTY keyboard? Got that too.

While the merits of a magnetic shape shifting phone are easy to see, there are a few flaws that are worth mentioning. For a person like me, who would lose her own head if it weren't attached to her shoulders, a phone like this has a lot of potential to be lost. Or I would lose one piece and be stuck with nothing but a keyboard or a display.

It looks like it's going to be a long time before a phone like this will be introduced into the mainstream, though, and for good reason. But the idea is one that will surely prove to be invaluable in the future.

For more information and pictures, visit Gadget Lab.

Announcing: The T-Mobile G1

We've been waiting for this ever since Apple came out with the iPhone. Those who are less than satisfied with AT&T's service or who just didn't want to jump on the iPhone bandwagon have searched and searched for an affordable phone with a reliable service provider, perhaps using new software.

Cue the T-Mobile G1.

The T-Mobile G1 is basically a touchscreen, smartphone Sidekick. It's a collaboration between Google, T-Mobile, and HTC. Google will be releasing it's new program Android on this phone, and Android has been greatly awaited.

This phone is going to cost simply $200 with a contract with T-Mobile. Though T-Mobile's low service prices and exceptional customer service should speak for itself, this phone certainly is as good a reason as any to switch to the service.

This phone will be available October 22nd, and I simply can't wait!

How To Customize Themes On Your Sidekick

Do you have a Sidekick 3, LX, Slide, or 2008? If you do, you've probably noticed (and loathe) the lack of customizable options on your phone.

To be fair, the only thing that can't really be customized for free is your ringtone. Sure, you can give people in your phone book special factory ringtones, but don't expect to download them off free websites and transfer them to your phone (no matter how many people who don't own Sidekicks may say that you can).

But there is something that you can make your own on your Sidekick, and that's your background. A great place to find really nice backgrounds is at sklxthemes.com. Some backgrounds even come with custom hinge sounds, so that your phone plays a music clip when you flip the screen up or down (how cool is that?).

Before you hop skip over to Sklxthemes to grab yourself a new background, let me give you a quick step-by-step process for putting these ringtones on your phone:

1. Hook your Sidekick up to your computer using a USB cable.
2. Open up the file folder that leads to your Sidekick (if it doesn't automatically pop up). It should appear in your "My Computer" file.
3. Once you're in the file folder for your Sidekick, you should see folders for music and DCIM. Right-click in open space and create a new folder entitled "Themes".
4. Once that file is created, find the theme you want and click "Download". Be sure you remember where the file downloads to: you'll need this for the next step.
5. Go to the location where the file downloaded to and click "Extract Files". The computer will ask you where to extract the files to; select the drop down menu and set the files to extract to the "Themes" folder you just created. Again, click "Extract Files" and your computer will start extracting them to your phone.
6. When the computer says your files are extracted, you're done! Safely remove your phone from the USB cable (the themes won't show up if it's still plugged in).
7. To change your theme, go to the Jump menu, hit the Menu button, and in that menu you should see either "Themes" or "Backgrounds". Going to that button will show you your available themes. Just click on the theme you want and you've got it!

Note: Ensure you have a MicroSD card in the memory slot. I don't think there's enough available space in the phone memory to store themes.

Hope this helps you out! And happy customizing!

Palm is A "Pro" at Smartphones

Calling all Treo fans...Calling all Treo fans...

As far as Treos go, it doesn't get much better than the Palm Treo Pro.

If you're looking for dependability, professionalism, and usability, the Palm Treo Pro is the phone for you. Featuring Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition, you're sure to keep track of all your business documents and contacts.

The sleek black design is a huge upgrade from earlier versions of the Treo, and it's user friendly interface and easy to use QWERTY keyboard are a sure hit.

As mentioned before, the phone isn't offered as part of a service agreement yet, so the price is pretty high. It's worth the big money if you want to spend it. According to the Boy Genius Report, this phone will be offered soon under the AT&T service, and you'll be offered the phone at a much lower price. If you can wait for it (although it offers plenty to be excited about), go ahead and grab it later.

A Great Idea From Blackberry

Blackberry has become quite the household name for smartphones, from their first models to the Bold.

So it's no surprise that Blackberry would come up with an idea like this: a flip smartphone.

Yes, that's right: the specimen you see to the left is none other than the new Blackberry Pearl Flip.

The specs are nice, and the idea of a flip smartphone is certainly attractive to those who like flip phones with business capability.

I'm no Blackberry enthusiast, but I will admit they may be on to something here. The idea is certainly a fresh turn from the usual smartphone prototypes being offered.

This phone is being offered on the T-Mobile network and will sell for about $600 a pop. It's a hefty price tag, but well worth it for anybody who's interested.

The Apple iPhone 3G...From A Critic's Point of View

The new Apple iPhone 3G came out in stores a month ago in 70 special countries around the world. All around, people were grabbing their kids, grabbing the lawn chairs, and waiting hours outside stores for their very own iPhone!


Of course, I found it necessary to read and see what this iPhone was all about. I won't have the opportunity to try it out myself after I've denounced the AT&T service and decided to stick to T-Mobile, which does not offer the iPhone. Which is fine by me.

I don't like to write about anything without doing my research first, so I went straight to the obvious place: the Apple website. Let me first note the guy who is talking about the phone says "Over the next 30 minutes I'm going to give you a brief tour of the iPhone". 30 minutes? I don't know who Apple thinks has 30 minutes to sit looking at a demonstration of a phone, except me.

I decided to do a real-time run through of the tutorial below, listing the main points as I go along.

Getting Started

The guided tour-turned-user-manual started in a very unconvincing way. It mentions how sleek and comfortable holding the iPhone is and begins to walk the viewer through the steps to lock the touchscreen and all sorts of other goodies. It shows you how to search for contacts and make a call. Guess what, kids: you can do things while you're on a call, like search the web and look for other contacts to bother! Gee, what an interesting boost of technology! We're really moving forward now!

Then something intrigued me: visual voicemail. Now Apple's talking, I thought to myself as I watched how you can see a list of people who have left you voicemails and listen to them in any order. Nice. Seeing as how I hate checking voicemails, this little feature was certainly alluring.

The iPod

Now we go to the multimedia aspect of the iPhone. After having owned two iPods (both of which came to unsuccessful and untimely ends), I swore off the iPod in its entirety. I also never really liked the iTunes platform, which of course you'll need to put songs on your shiny new iPhone.

The cool thing, though, is that you can watch and even rent movies on your iPhone. You turn the phone horizontally and it offers the choice between full- and widescreen viewing. Very good for the movie buff who actually has the time to go somewhere where they are forced to watch videos on their phone... personally, I couldn't justify getting a phone for video capability when I have a lovely 17" laptop that does rather nicely. But moving on.

iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store

This application is great for people who actually pay for their music through iTunes. For those like me who don't care (at the risk of self-incrimination), it doesn't mean much. You buy songs and albums from iTunes and it downloads straight to your computer. Hey...can you download songs straight from Limewire to your fancy iPhone? Now I would call THAT a revolutionary application.

I've said too much...

Earphones

The iPhone comes with these headphones that allow you to answer a call while you're listening to music, then fades the music back when the call is over. Nice, but it's nothing new. A Bluetooth headset will do the trick.

Keyboard

I cheated a little and skipped right past the Internet (which is arguably the most important part of the phone) because I knew it wasn't going to say anything that I didn't already know. The Internet's faster than the last phone because it's 3G, we know, we know. Being an avid texter, I was interested in seeing how the keyboard was going to work.

The touch keyboard idea is actually kind of cool, but the buttons seem so small and the guy made a lot of typing errors while he was typing. The phone just predicts the words you want to use, sort of like an integrated iTap with a keyboard. As cool as it looked, though, a turnoff was the initial need to use one finger to type instead of two thumbs (my personal favorite). Besides, people these days already get lazy enough with their spelling...do we really need a phone to encourage that? Of course, for all you Japanese buffs out there, the iPhone offers a Japanese character keyboard and letter recognition so you can get those Japanese characters just right.

I, of course, being the common layperson who is only fluent in English and can read some Spanish and understand it when spoken veeerrrryyy slowly, didn't find the Japanese characters to be a huge need, but I'm sure people in Japan are heralding the addition.

Price

Now that I knew the features, it was time to factor in the cost.

With a new two-year contract (with AT&T?? The horror!), the 8GB iPhone is $199 and the 16GB is $299. Not too bad.

For those who cannot upgrade, the cost for the 8GB is $399 and the 16GB is $499. I suppose that's fine for those who want to spend that much money on it.

Now for the contract itself. A voice plan is $39.99 per month, an unlimited texting plan is $20, and an unlimited data plan is $30. So we're at approximately $90 PER MONTH (without taxes, mind you) to be introduced into the wonderful world of... doing everything you could do on a smartphone for a cheaper amount. Hell, my voice and sidekick plan (which includes unlimited texts and data BUNDLED) will cost at most $70 per month once I get into the cycle of paying for my service on a regular basis (which won't be for another two months).

This is exactly why I didn't take up a contract with AT&T when I lost my Treo. They take your money for no reason at all.

My Observations

Is the iPhone worth the hours of waiting in line?

....Meh...in my opinion, no.

But that's just my opinion.

So before you start throwing the tomatoes (none with salmonella, please, that's just cruel), let me say this:

-> I don't hate anyone who has or wants an iPhone and if you want to stand outside braving the elements for hours on end waiting for it, that's all on you. People do it for CDs. You just won't find me sitting outside waiting for anything that's not edible.

-> I'm a Windows fan. Always have been. The Apple platform caused me to lose a word processing competition a year and a half ago and I still haven't forgiven it. Stupid Apple.

-> The iPhone has so many features that it seems featured out. All of the icons like the weather and business and stuff like that seem superfluous at best. They bog down the phone and while some people thing "the more icons, the better", I think that the more icons the slower and the less efficient.

But that's just me.