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'.

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...