Smartphones and Cell Phones

CTIA 09: Quickoffice brings Word & Excel view, edit, create to iPhone and it rocks!

I spent some time with the folks at Quickoffice yesterday afternoon and had a chance to see their new Quickoffice for iPhone application in action. It has been submitted to the App Store and should be out next week. I have just three words for you when it appears in the App Store, GO BUY IT. There are some good applications on the iPhone, but I think this may be the best one yet and for someone who wants to actually get some work done it is awesome. It will be priced at $19.99, which is cheap for the product you are getting.

April 3, 2009 by Matthew Miller in iPhone

CTIA 09: Hands-on with HTC Touch Pro2, Nokia E75, HTC Snap and more

In addition to meeting up with friends and developing relationships with mobile application developers, carriers, and manufacturers my favorite part of these trade shows is getting hands-on time with products. I was able to try out several that interest me, including the Samsung OMNIA HD, Nokia E75, Nokia N86, HTC Snap, HTC Touch Pro2, and HTC Diamond2. You can check out my image gallery and thoughts on these devices below. The order of my coverage below is from my personal favorite to least favorite.

April 2, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Hardware

CTIA 09: DataViz announces Word/Excel software and push Exchange email for Android

I have been disappointed by the lack of Android hardware news at CTIA, following the lack of news at Mobile World Congress, and am starting to wonder why it is taking so long for manufacturers to get on the Android train. There was one shining bit of news though that had me purchasing another application on the Android Market this morning. DataViz announced Documents To Go Standard and RoadSync beta for the T-Mobile G1 and HTC Magic. You can check out their new products and download both from the Android Market.

April 2, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

CTIA 09: Walk through some 3rd party apps on the Palm Pre

The one device that I have not yet had a chance to see in person was the Palm Pre and all of that changed at the Mobile Focus event last night. Kevin Tofel and I were able to corner Matt Crowley, Palm product line manager for the Palm Pre, and he ran through some things on the Pre for us. I asked particularly about 3rd party applications because I haven't yet seen any in action. He showed us Fandango, NASCAR, and Amazon Music on the camera and then we also heard more about Pandora. Check out the video below to see these apps in action and then a walk through some of the other main features of the Palm Pre.

April 1, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Hewlett Packard Enterprise

CTIA 09: HTC announces the sleek Snap non-touchscreen device

The T-Mobile Dash remains one of my favorite smartphones of all time and after I get home from CTIA I am going with my wife to pick up a new all black one for her for $50 at T-Mobile since she broke another one. She LOVES it and won't go to another device, even after several of my failed attempts. That may change though if she saw what I get to see this week here at CTIA. HTC announced the Snap Windows Mobile non-touchsreen device that is the true successor to the T-Mobile Dash/HTC Excalibur. One key feature of the Snap's new QWERTY keyboard is the offset arrangement of the keys since QWERTY thumb keyboards really should not have their keys all lined up as most of them are, but offset to make text entry more accurate.

April 1, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

CTIA 09: Hands-on walk through BlackBerry App World, 30% of apps are free

We knew the BlackBerry App World launch was coming soon and rumors had it for 1 April. While in a conversation with fellow writers at the Showstoppers event an email appeared on my phone that the BlackBerry App World was available and ready for installation. I pulled out the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 and quickly installed the new application suite to give it a run through. Check out several screenshots in my image gallery and the video below, as well as my more in depth thoughts on this new application store.

March 31, 2009 by Matthew Miller in BlackBerry

CTIA 09: Microsoft announces Marketplace partners, removes application update charges

To kick off the CTIA news, Microsoft announced some official support for Windows phones as well as a change in policy, for the better, in regards to developers and the Windows Marketplace. The policy for developers to be charged for updates after the seven-day window has been updated and developers will be able to make updates to their applications throughout the application lifecycle with no additional charges. It is great to see Microsoft listening and responding quickly to feedback from the community.

March 30, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Developer

Gravity gives you the best Twitter experience on a mobile phone

Surprisingly, there has not yet been a dedicated (non-Java) Twitter client for the S60 platform even though S60 leads the world in market share. There was a very tightly controlled private beta of Gravity going on for a month or so, but I didn't get a chance to try it myself. This morning Gravity went public and I immediately downloaded and installed it on my Nokia 5800 XpressMusic device. After about an hour of usage I can say this application gives me the BEST Twitter experience on a mobile device. I have tried several iPhone and Windows Mobile applications, but find the speed, animations, functionality, multiple client support, and more to be so much better on the 5800.

March 30, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Microsoft

Clash of the Touch Titans; iPhone 3G 3.0 vs HTC Magic Google Android

My new iPhone 3G (2nd one after returning my original last Fall) is on the way after finding a deal on a new one at HowardForums. I also have been using the T-Mobile G1 since last October, but as I mentioned in my first Clash of the Titans article I am going to discuss the HTC Magic since it is the Android device without the keyboard and I am trying to stick with touch screen only devices if possible. I wanted to clarify that I am putting these articles together as a reference resource that lays out everything we currently know about the devices and operating systems running on them. This is the method I personally use for most all high value devices I purchase and I thought it would be helpful to share my process with you all. As you saw in my iPhone vs. Pre article, I didn't reach a full conclusion because that is impossible without actually using the Pre. Some people may question why I even post these articles at this time as it may be premature, but this is the process I am going through as device release dates approach so if you think it is too early feel free to skip the articles and wait until I get a chance to get my hands on the device and post full reviews because you know I won't be able to resist and will end up with at least one of the devices in a few months.

March 29, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Weekend PSA; subscribe to the Smartphones & Cell Phones blog

My ZDNet Mobile Gadgeteer blog has thousands of RSS subscribers and I noticed that this still rather young Smartphones & Cell Phones blog has just a few of you subscribed to the feed. Thus, as a weekend public service announcement I wanted to make you aware that you can subscribe via RSS using your favorite client and know when I post new articles. Did you know you can also sign up for email alerts if you don't use RSS?

March 28, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Smartphones

MobileTechRoundup show #167, Whispersync, iPhone 3.0 notification, and Opera Mobile with Turbo

Kevin finally sent back James' original Kindle, but only after first buying his own Kindle 2. In MobileTechRoundup show #167 we started off by chatting about how the Whispersync technology makes the Kindle a compelling product for iPhone ebook fans. The official announcement was also made last week for eReader beta for BlackBerry devices. Om Malik broke the news that Skype may be coming to the iPhone next week at CTIA and Kevin and I will be there to find out first hand and maybe make some test calls between our iPhones. We didn't get into all the details of the iPhone OS 3.0 update, but we did discuss the implication of push notification and whether or not other will follow Apple's lead in using this type of system. Opera Mobile 9.7 also gets a Turbo boost and James and I talked a bit about why we like this browsing solution.

March 27, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Opera Mobile 9.7 coming with Opera Turbo server acceleration

I will be covering CTIA on my ZDNet blogs next week and just received a press release that Opera will be announcing Opera Mobile 9.7 at the event. Opera Mobile is the best web browser currently available for Windows Mobile devices and looks to be getting even better with Opera Turbo and Presto 2.2 rendering engine. This updated browser also offers full support for dynamic web technologies like Ajax and Flash.

March 26, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Google Mobile App with voice search now available for BlackBerry

The Google Mobile App with Voice Search was launched previously on devices running the Android OS, Windows Mobile, and iPhone OS and it is now available for RIM BlackBerry devices. I use the Google Mobile App daily on my new Curve 8900 to get to Reader quickly and conduct fast searches. This updated version also supports My Location so you won't even need to speak a location when you conduct a voice search.

March 25, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Google

eReader brings access to almost 60,000 ebooks to the BlackBerry platform

I've been enjoying eReader (used to be called Peanut Press, then PalmReader) for years on my mobile devices and I had always just assumed that the software was available on all the major platforms since it worked on my Palm, S60, and Windows Mobile devices. It is also currently available for the iPhone/iPod touch devices. Yesterday, Fictionwise, Inc. announced that a beta for BlackBerry devices is now available for testing and evaluation. I was a bit surprised that it wasn't already on the BlackBerry platform and think this is a smart move by Fictionwise since the BB platform is quite huge and growing as they release more consumer-oriented devices. I loaded it up on my new Curve 8900 and it was easy to sign into my Fictionwise account and easily access my library of ebooks.

March 24, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Internet traffic data shows the iPhone was top dog in February

AdMob released their February 2009 report (PDF link) that gathers data from ads on more than 6,000 mobile web sites and 1,000 applications around the world. This data does not show sales information, which is tough to really understand because of the way companies count sales and the way data analysis companies count smartphones. Looking at the US smartphone figures, Apple has the lions share of traffic 50% in Febuary 2009 with RIM in second with 21%, Windows Mobile in third with 13%, Palm in fourth with 7% and Android in fifth with 5%.