Smartphones and Cell Phones

I am pretty happy with my T-Mobile G1 Google Android device and something I have been doing lately with my touch screen only devices like the original iPhone is using the plastic film skins. I like using these types of cases because they give you full functionality, excellent protection, and don't take away from the sleek design of the device. I tried the BodyGuardz transparent skin on my T-Mobile G1 and after several weeks of usage the skin is performing flawlessly. You can find several images of the skin on my G1 in the image gallery.

January 5, 2009 by Matthew Miller

2 Comments Vote

The tech community is gearing up for CES and Macworld Expo 2009 events this week and it is expected there will be new from the large computer makers, Apple, HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc. However, did you know that Nokia is now the world's largest computer maker with 13.8% of market share? HP, Dell, Apple, Acer, Lenovo, RIM, and Toshiba follow in the stats. These numbers only include the Nokia smartphones and not all of the Nokia mobile phones (Series 40 phones are quite powerful too, but not included) or devices (Nokia Internet Tablets are not included), which would increase their numbers even more.

January 4, 2009 by Matthew Miller

11 Comments Vote

As I have written many times, I am a huge 3rd party application fan and can't help loading up my original iPhone with applications to try out. One of the latest applications that I find very useful for the iPhone is craigsphone. craigsphone brings craigslist to your iPhone and unlike the other craigslist applications on the iPhone App Store you can actually create and post an ad right from your iPhone on the go. You can take a photo with your iPhone and include it in your ad so there is no reason to create another post without a photo.

January 4, 2009 by Matthew Miller

5 Comments Vote

It should be a big week of news with MacWorld and CES taking place and one of the most anticipated announcements surrounds Palm and what they will be revealing on Thursday. CrunchGear just posted some thoughts on the possible new Nova device that we may see this week. According to their source, the new OS is "amazing" and "iPhone-like". Speculation is that the device may have a slider display that reveals a Treo-esque keyboard. As a fan of the Palm Treo Pro and older Treo devices I would find a slider of this design very compelling.

January 4, 2009 by Matthew Miller

6 Comments Vote

So you received or bought a new device over the holidays and are now trying to figure out how to use all of the cool features in your new smartphone. I found a couple of recent articles that offer some excellent tips, tricks, and customizations to help you get the most out of your new HTC Fuze/Touch Pro or BlackBerry device.

January 2, 2009 by Matthew Miller

4 Comments Vote

I briefly tried out the Nokia N82 and N78 and while I thought they were both good devices, I still enjoyed using the N95 and N81 8GB more. I then saw the OLED display on the Samsung I7710 S60 device and fell in love with the brightness and true colors. The new Nokia N85 has an OLED screen so I ordered one for myself as soon as the North American version was available. I've now had it for over a week and have to say it is the BEST Nseries device I have used and I am very happy with my purchase. There are a couple of things that could still be improved, but I think it will be the next most popular S60 device that takes the top spot from the N95.

January 1, 2009 by Matthew Miller

3 Comments Vote

The iPhone Dev Team has been hard at work on unlocking the iPhone 3G and to celebrate the new year they have now released the yellowsn0w 3G unlock application. There are a few things you need to do on your iPhone 3G before you can install this small utility. Also, this is still an early beta so there are some limitations that you will want to note.

January 1, 2009 by Matthew Miller

4 Comments Vote

As a mobile phone enthusiast I always seem to be on the hunt for the "perfect" device and while many devices come very close there always seems to be a few features that keep a device from perfection. I've been using the Nokia N85 (first impressions coming later this week) for a few days and as we close out 2008 I thought it would be interesting to go through each mobile operating system and post what I think is the best device for each, along with what I would like to see to make the device "perfect" for me.

December 30, 2008 by Matthew Miller

6 Comments Vote

Sling Media announced that a SlingPlayer Mobile client for BlackBerry devices would be coming out as a public beta and it is now available for download. Visit mobile.slingmedia.com/ from your BlackBerry browser to install it since there is no desktop installer for the software. Officially supported devices are the Pearl 8120, Pearl Flip 8220, Curve 8320, BlackBerry 8820, Curve 8900, and Bold 9000. I understand that the EDGE-only devices will also work, but performance won't be as good as you will find on a 3G BlackBerry device. You also need to have BlackBerry OS 4.5 or later to run the software.

December 29, 2008 by Matthew Miller

1 Comment Vote

I find my look back at 2007 post to be a good resource/index for my reviews and enjoyed checking out the poll results from you all. Thus, I am posting the same type of article for 2008. This Smartphones and Cell Phones blog just kicked off in September so many of the reviews listed below were posted on my Mobile Gadgeteer blog. More software reviews were added this year and I decided to list some of my favorite applications that I reviewed here too in this 2008 wrap-up. Some "award" titles were again assigned and then I am ending with a list of devices I look forward to checking out in 2009.

December 28, 2008 by Matthew Miller

14 Comments Vote