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Smartphones and Cell Phones

Matthew Miller provides you with news, commentary and in-depth reviews of the latest in mobile phones sporting iOS, Android, and Windows.

Matthew Miller

Matthew Miller started using mobile devices in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since. Matthew started using mobile devices with a US Robotics Pilot 1000 and has owned hundreds of devices running Palm, Linux, Symbian, Newton, BlackBerry, iOS, Android, webOS, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phone operating systems. His current collection includes the latest and greatest foldables, wearables, and more, along with classic devices like the Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 and Sony CLIE UX50. Matthew can be found on various social networks under the user name of "palmsolo."

Latest Posts

Evernote for Windows Mobile updated with GPS functions and file sync

I am a big fan of the Evernote clients and service and cast my vote for them in the recent Crunchie contest they won so I was particularly pleased to see that they keep improving the Windows Mobile client right along with the iPhone client. The latest release for Windows Mobile brings a host of new features that I can't wait to try out on my Palm Treo Pro and HTC Fuze.

January 16, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobile OS

Will IE Mobile 6 be available on existing hardware?

The last we heard from a Microsoft source was that you would need to buy a new Windows Mobile device to get the Internet Explorer Mobile 6.1 web browser. WMExperts posted on the rumored Sprint Diamond ROM update that shows MSIE 6.0 in the list of new/different features. If the Sprint Touch Diamond can support IE Mobile 6 then there are a host of even more powerful devices (Touch Pro, XPERIA X1, etc.) that should be able to support it too with an update.

January 16, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Enterprise Software

New Bolt web browser for Java enabled phones now in beta

Years ago I tried using the ThunderHawk web browser on my Pocket PC to get a better browsing experience. ThunderHawk was developed by Bitstream and is a server-side browser like the new Skyfire browser that is under development. I just read over on CrackBerry.com that Bitstream is working on a new browser called Bolt for Java-enabled handsets. The Bolt browser is in beta right now and CrackBerry.com has 1,000 invites so get on over and sign up for the beta to test on your device.

January 16, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Open Source

Agora device will not be the second Google Android phone, delayed indefinitely

For the most part I enjoy using my T-Mobile G1, but am looking forward to future hardware. When I saw the Agora Pro, I went ahead and ordered one in December. Many people doubted it would ever come to be, but I held out hope and it was actually shown off a bit at CES last week. A reader just emailed me this news that confirms the Agora and Agora Pro are delayed indefinitely and in all likelihood will never see the light of day.

January 15, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Google drops Jaiku, can Nokia please pick it up and run with it?

Larry mentioned a list of Google services that are shutting down, but one he did not mention that is also being let go by Google is Jaiku. From what I understand Google will release the Jaiku code under the open source Apache license, so that somebody else can take it where they want to. I think Nokia should pick it up and carry it since it is highly focused on S60 users and would fit perfectly into their focus on providing services.

January 15, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Social Media

Early Palm Pre and iPhone comparisons give advantage to the Pre

After Palm announced the Pre at CES you just knew the comparisons with existing devices was going to come out. Gizmodo posted a comparison between the Pre, iPhone, and G1 which is a pretty fair comparison given that these all run fairly new operating systems, use touch capacitive displays, and are the hottest devices in the mobile space at the moment. Gizmodo's bottom line is that the Pre gets the advantage in most all categories with the G1 only getting a partial kudos for copy and paste.

January 14, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Enterprise Software

Sorry, you won't see Opera, Firefox, or Chrome soon on your iPhone

I was pleased at first to see the headline from Jason about web browsers on the Apple iPhone, but then after a bit more reading I found out that hell did not freeze over and it just cooled down a couple of degrees. As Steve O'Hear pointed out on last100.com these "browsers" are basically different skins for the Webkit browser engine on the iPhone. So if you were like me and hoping to see Opera Mobile, Skyfire, Chrome, or Firefox on the iPhone I think we really will have to wait until hell freezes over before we see a real browser battle on the iPhone.

January 13, 2009 by Matthew Miller in iPhone

Slacker Radio joins a growing list of iPhone streaming music apps

I don't have a huge music collection so I tend to use the online streaming music services quite a bit. Slacker Mobile for BlackBerry devices was announced last week at CES and now you can pick up Slacker Mobile for the iPhone for free on the App Store. Slacker Mobile lets you listen to over 100 Slacker stations, over 10,000 artist stations, and a ton more custom-created stations.

January 13, 2009 by Matthew Miller in iPhone

Major update for Nokia E71 now available

I was reading through my feeds and stumbled upon the NokiaAddict.com site that stated there was a firmware update for the Nokia E71 available. I have the NAM (North American version) of the E71 and wasn't sure if the update was actually available since the European versions usually get the updates far earlier than the US version. I started and upgraded the Nokia Software Updater on my PC and was pleased to see there was an update available for my E71. The current firmware was shown as 100.07.76 and the new update is labeled as 200.21.118.

January 13, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Microsoft

Sorry Scoble, it isn't over for Windows Mobile or Nokia in the US

Many of the online mobile enthusiasts, myself included, said that Palm needed to make a big announcement at CES to stay relevant in the mobile space and thankfully they did. So while the Pre and Palm WebOS gets Palm back in the game for now, it is way too early to say they are back for good. Robert Scoble posted a rather rather limited view of the mobile space yesterday and stated that Nokia and Microsoft are out of the mobile game in the US. He wrongly assumed that each of the four major US carriers only select one mobile OS as their dominant smartphone platform. Michael Gartenberg posted a response that I think much more accurately portrays the US mobile market.

January 13, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Pharos announces first T-Mobile 3G capable Windows Mobile device

There was quite a bit of news out of CES last week and one tidbit that slipped by me was the announcement of the Pharos Traveler 137 Windows Mobile Smartphone. I never thought much about picking up a Pharos Windows Mobile device before, but see their latest Traveler GPS devices look quite attractive and full featured. The 127 and 117 actually look very much like the Velocity Mobile products that should have been available last year. The major new feature of the Traveler 137 is the support for T-Mobile USA's 1700 MHz 3G wireless band. It doesn't have the 850 MHz band for AT&T's 3G network though.

January 12, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Is this HTC's 2009 product roadmap?

I heard about the supposed leak of the HTC 2009 roadmap images this morning and now see that Ed Hardy has put together a very nice breakdown of the devices by type, category, and operating system. Some devices are no surprise, one or two may really please me, and one actually shocked me a bit. Keep in mind this info is some kind of roadmap info so these devices may or may not be what we actually see ship from HTC in 2009 and some may be ideas and prototypes. I like the looks of most of what I see, but also need to see the OS behind the devices before I start forking over more of my hard earned cash.

January 12, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Will Microsoft's limiting of devices allow them to react faster in the mobile space?

Regular readers know that I use devices from all the mobile operating systems and am pretty flexible on what I am using day-to-day. I keep falling back to Windows Mobile devices (mainly my Palm Treo Pro and HTC Fuze) because I find the Exchange experience to be superior to ANYTHING else on the market and I like having such a broad choice in form factor. As I wrote last Fall this expansive choice of devices may also be a weakness in today's market due to expectations people now have for their mobile device that is primarily a result of the iPhone's methods for upgradeability and ease of usability. At CES, a Microsoft representative stated that they plan to start limiting the number of devices running Windows Mobile in order to improve the value of the license.

January 12, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Exchange support provided on the Google Android G1 via TouchDown

I have now been using a T-Mobile G1 for about 3 months and still find it to be a rock solid device that is a blast to use. A coworker visited my desk today and said she picked up the G1 and loves it so far, but wondered how she could get her work email on the device. We just switched to Exchange about six months ago and also have IMAP support. She figured out all the needed IMAP settings, which was quite impressive because I couldn't get it right and it was very customized compared to a standard IMAP setup. Her question encouraged me to look again for any kind of Exchange client on the G1 and in the spirit of the football playoffs I scored a TouchDown!

January 9, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Palm WebOS is all about the Mojo

The excitement surrounding the Palm Pre and WebOS announcements is still quite high and is definitely the talk of CES 2009. Today, Palm posted some details on the Mojo application framework that developers will be able to use to write applications for the new device and OS. The hardware of the Pre is nice, but others have outstanding hardware as well. The success of the Pre and Palm comes down to the user experience, services, and developer support.

January 9, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Smartphones and Cell Phones

Matthew Miller

Latest Posts

Evernote for Windows Mobile updated with GPS functions and file sync

Will IE Mobile 6 be available on existing hardware?

New Bolt web browser for Java enabled phones now in beta

Agora device will not be the second Google Android phone, delayed indefinitely

Google drops Jaiku, can Nokia please pick it up and run with it?

Early Palm Pre and iPhone comparisons give advantage to the Pre

Sorry, you won't see Opera, Firefox, or Chrome soon on your iPhone

Slacker Radio joins a growing list of iPhone streaming music apps

Major update for Nokia E71 now available

Sorry Scoble, it isn't over for Windows Mobile or Nokia in the US

Pharos announces first T-Mobile 3G capable Windows Mobile device

Is this HTC's 2009 product roadmap?

Will Microsoft's limiting of devices allow them to react faster in the mobile space?

Exchange support provided on the Google Android G1 via TouchDown

Palm WebOS is all about the Mojo

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