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!