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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

Touch Pro2 tips: How to change the city for weather on your calendar

As you know I now own a T-Mobile Touch Pro2 and am working on setting it all up and customizing it to my preferences. I already have over 25 3rd party applications loaded up and am getting everything just right. There are a few things I could not figure out myself and discovered there is a great FAQ section on the HTC Touch Pro2 over at the HTC site. I copied a few of these tips I found particularly helpful below, including fixing the weather on your calendar, switching apps without a directional pad or lots of customizable hardware buttons, and customizing the TF3D weather widget.

August 18, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Hardware

Tips & tricks to optimize Opera Mobile 9.5 on T-Mobile Touch Pro2

Diving a bit deeper into the Opera Mobile installation on my new T-Mobile Touch Pro2 revealed that this is version 9.5 (build 16643). Opera Mobile 9.7 beta is the version I tested out and showed how it smoked even the iPhone 3GS browser due to the Turbo mode where it uses the Opera servers to speed things up. While digging through the configuration settings of Opera Mobile 9.5 I found out that you can enable a Turbo mode on your T-Mobile Touch Pro2. (UPDATE: This is NOT the Turbo mode found in Opera Mobile 9.7, but another setting as explained below.) You need to go into a special area where you must use a bit of caution, but Turbo mode is clearly there. I did not know there was Turbo support in 9.5 and thought it was only in version 9.7, but maybe it is in the 9.5 version that ships from OEMs since I have yet to see a standalone download for version 9.5.

August 17, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Enterprise Software

Goodbye myTouch 3G and hello HTC Touch Pro2

Last week when I posted my first impressions of the T-Mobile Touch Pro2 I stated that I ended up buying the myTouch 3G when I went to visit the T-Mobile store instead of picking up the TP2 as I intended. Yesterday was my ninth day of owning the myTouch 3G, but I made the decision to visit T-Mobile and trade it back in for the Touch Pro2 for a couple of reasons. I actually called six stores throughout the Seattle/Tacoma area and only one had a single Touch Pro2 in stock as all the other stores were sold out. I am not sure how many were in each store, but even with the $350 price they seem to be selling well.

August 17, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Windows

TomTom arrives on the iPhone for $100

AT&T Navigator's subscription based GPS navigation solution (see our review) was the first full GPS voice navigation system for the Apple iPhone, but there is now some serious competition in the GPS navigation space that may even start knocking out dedicated PND. The biggest news today is that TomTom for the iPhone was released in the US. TomTom (iTunes link) is a well known name in PNDs and their iPhone solution is one of the most costly at $99. Other recent stand-alone (no subscription required) GPS navigation solutions for the iPhone include Navigon at a special $69.99 launch price and CoPilot Live for $34.99. There is quite a price range across these navigation solutions and we'll have to see if the high cost of TomTom is worth the premium over CoPilot Live 8.

August 17, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Smartphones

Push Gmail comes to the iPhone through GPush

Google is pretty well integrated into the iPhone, but one area where the Android OS has stood above this integration is with push Gmail. That has changed today with the launch of GPush (iTunes link), a Gmail push application for the iPhone available now for 99 cents. You can setup how you wish to be notified of your incoming Gmail, including through vibration, ringing or GPush icon display of unread messages. You will also receive a preview of incoming email with the sender's name and subject heading.

August 17, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Enterprise Software

3 new apps appear on Palm Pre App Catalog, including Palm Desktop sync

Official app releases are few and far between for the Palm Pre, but according to the Palm webOS Blog three new ones just appeared tonight. Two are games, Blackout and Spades, while the third is a desktop syncing client from the folks at Chapura. The developer of Spades has a couple of other Palm Pre apps coming soon to the App Catalog and also created a couple of Google Android games.

August 14, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Hardware

MobileTechRoundup show #180, T-Mobile Touch Pro2 thoughts

Kevin and I teased everyone a bit last week and in our focused MobileTechRoundup show #180 we spent quite a bit of time talking about the new T-Mobile HTC Touch Pro2. James then chimed in with Kevin to talk about the rise in homebrew apps for the Palm Pre and I am a bit jealous that Sprint coverage is not good enough for me to have a Pre. We talked about depositing check with my iPhone and then James had a possible Touchstone failure to report.

August 14, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

CoPilot Live launches full iPhone navigation solution for just $35

I am right in the middle of my evaluation of CoPilot Live for Android and then today I received the press release that their iPhone product is also now available in the iTunes App Store (iTunes link). CoPilot Live is a system that can be used offline if you do not have wireless data access and for $34.99 you get the software and all maps for the USA and Canada. IMHO, this is a fantastic deal and one that is tough to beat with subscription services.

August 14, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Hardware

Does the rumored HTC Leo really have a capacitive display?

The HTC Touch HD is the current super high end Windows Mobile device in HTC's collection of devices. I tried it out a couple of times, but could not get over the lack of hardware buttons even though it had a large beautiful display and some super specifications. There are now rumors of its successor, the HTC Leo that take this form factor to the next level with a Snapdragon processor.

August 14, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Enterprise Software

HTC patent shows stylus for capacitive displays

We see details from lots of Apple patents on new technology posted on the Internet and there are some that show cool technology while others are way out ideas that we will probably never see implemented. HTC is the leader in Windows Mobile and Google Android development and has come out with some very innovative technologies. MoDaCo posted on two HTC patents that we may see on future devices. One is for a stylus and the other for display technology.

August 14, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Qik finally gets an official iPhone video application in the App Store

Qik is a live video streaming service with mobile applications for BlackBerry, Nokia and Windows Mobile devices. There was a version for Qik a year or so ago for jailbroken iPhones, but they have not been able to get a version up on the App Store until now. As you can read in their announcement blog post you are not yet able to live stream, but you can record a video (with your iPhone 3GS) and then have it uploaded automatically if you are connected to a WiFi network. A version for 3G uploads has been submitted for approval so an update should be coming soon.

August 13, 2009 by Matthew Miller in iPhone

Current Nokia Office client developer responds to Microsoft announcement

One of the first things I thought of after hearing about the Microsoft/Nokia partnership for providing Microsoft services to Nokia was the impact on 3rd party developers. In particular, Quickoffice is installed on Eseries and Nseries devices as is the current default Office-compatible product on Nokia devices. I contacted them to find out their thoughts on the announcement and they sent me a response.

August 12, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Collaboration

Microsoft and Nokia announce partnership to bring Microsoft products to Nokia smartphones

I am listening in on the conference call right now, but Nokia has already posted the press release regarding the partnership and announcement. As you can read, this is quite a huge agreement that will bring Office Mobile and other Microsoft products to Nokia smartphones, such as Microsoft Office Communicator. The Eseries will be the first product line to integrate the Microsoft products, which makes sense since the Eseries is targeted to the business user.

August 12, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Q2 worldwide smartphone sales show Apple increasing a whopping 10.5% over 2008

Gartner's worldwide smartphone sales numbers are in for the 2nd quarter of 2009 and it looks like Apple had the greatest increase with HTC and RIM also showing increases in marketshare compared to 2008. This makes sense as the iPhone 3GS hit the market, Android continues to roll out from HTC, and RIM continues to release updated BlackBerry models. The 10.5% increase in one year for Apple is pretty staggering, especially given current economic conditions and the fact that the iPhone is not an inexpensive device.

August 12, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Smartphones

Review: T-Mobile HTC Touch Pro2 is a hefty device with a price to match

The T-Mobile HTC Touch Pro2 is definitely not a small pocketable device, but more of a portable computer with functions those in the business field may appreciate. The hardware is quite good, but I was left with the feeling that Android would have been much more enjoyable on it. As I wrote last week I went all in with T-Mobile and as a result had a line with full upgrade eligibility. I planned to wait until this week and purchase my own Touch Pro2, but left the store with a new Merlot myTouch 3G so let's go through the device and see why I didn't stick to my original plan.

August 11, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility