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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

1.5 million Android phones pre-sold? What's up with the 16 October launch party?

As we get closer and closer to the launch of the T-Mobile G1 Google Android device the rumors are heating up. The latest report comes from The Motley Fool (it hasn't been confirmed by anyone else yet) states that T-Mobile has sold out of the first (we all knew that) and second batch of preorders. This equates to 1.5 million G1 devices being called for in preorder sales. That would be quite a feat considering there are still about 10 days before we get our devices in hand.

October 12, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Hardware

Will HTC be the first to launch a WiMAX-enabled mobile phone?

Fellow Mobile Tech Roundup podcast co-host Kevin Tofel went to the Sprint/XOHM WiMAX launch event in Baltimore this week and wrote up his thoughts. The event was focused mainly on the devices that support the WiMAX network that was launched the week before and as a mobile guy I was most interested in the Nokia N810. The N810 is the only mobile device I have heard of that supports WiMAX, until today when I read about the rumored HTC T8290.

October 10, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Can the Motorola Q11 compete in today's market without a 3G radio?

The original Motorola Q was really the Windows Mobile device that started the trend of BlackBerry QWERTY competitors a couple of years ago, but had serious battery life issues. Since then Motorola has continued to improve the device so that today's Motorola Q9 devices are actually quite powerful, functional, and reliable. The one wireless feature they currently lack is WiFi, but they do have 3G radios. Unwired View revealed that the Motorola Q11 is now up on the Motorola site even though no official press release has been issued. This device does have WiFi, but loses the 3G radio so I am not sure it is really a step up from the Q9 devices. Then again, I understand this device is supposed to be priced competitively.

October 8, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Networking

RIM announces BlackBerry Storm with responsive touch screen display

It was no secret that the BlackBerry Storm was coming to Verizon, but now it is official as both Verizon Wireless and Vodafone announced the device with RIM tonight. The BlackBerry Storm is the first touch screen BlackBerry device and one of the first I have ever heard of that has a display with real feedback.

October 7, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Hardware

Samsung Rugby put to the extreme at the Renaissance Faire

While most of the phones I use now are higher end smartphones, there are also some very compelling feature phones out there that you may want to consider. A few weeks ago, AT&T and Samsung announced the ruggedized Rugby (a837) military-grade handset. My buddy Michael just posted a very entertaining video of the Rugby put under some extreme conditions over at Mobile Burn.

October 7, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Review: HAVA Platinum HD lets you watch TV on your Nokia Internet Tablet, S60 or WM device

I've been using a Slingbox since they were first launched a few years ago and have used all of the mobile clients to watch my TV content on the road. I still have my Slingbox Classic and use it on my S60 and Windows Mobile devices from time to time. Once I saw that Monsoon Multimedia had a place shifting device that supported a Nokia Internet Tablet I knew I had to give it a try. I was sent a HAVA Platinum HD to try out and have to say I was very pleased with its performance and functionality. I especially like that there are FREE mobile clients for the Nokia Internet Tablet devices, Windows Mobile devices, and S60 devices (currently in beta). I posted product photos and mobile client screenshots in my new image gallery. Read below to find out what other functionality is a part of the HAVA that I haven't seen in my Slingbox.

October 6, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Tablets

First impressions of the Nokia N96

The Nokia N96 was announced back at Mobile World Congress and I was able to get some hands-on time back then. I was just sent a Nokia N96-1 (European version) to evaluate as part of the Nseries Blogger Relations program and posted several photos in my image gallery and am posting my initial thoughts on the device below. I also shot a video walk around of the device and showed a couple of other functions I tried out so far. Please let me know if you have any questions you want answered in a follow on post after I have had a couple of weeks to use the device.

October 4, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Microsoft

fring lets you make Skype calls from your iPhone, available for free

Back in April I wrote about the availability of fring on the iPhone, but at that time you needed a jailbroken iPhone to use it and the iPhone 3G wasn't yet available. You may recall that fring is a VoIP application that lets you use Skype, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, Twitter, Yahoo!, and AIM clients to chat and instant message. Well, the good news is that fring is available now for free in the Apple App Store and can be loaded on your iPhone without any jailbreaking required.

October 3, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Collaboration

T-Mobile clarifies G1 Android pre-order availability and text messaging question

I was lucky enough to attend the T-Mobile G1 product announcement in New York a couple of weeks ago and actually pre-ordered my own G1 that day on the train back to the airport for my flight home and it turns out it was a good thing I did. I read reports earlier this week that T-Mobile may have sold out of the G1 and just received confirmation and more details from my T-Mobile representative. T-Mobile did indeed sell out of the original stock even after nearly tripling the number of phones available for initial delivery.

October 3, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Nokia Comes With Music service to give you all you can eat for free

Along with the Nokia 5800 touch screen device announcement, Nokia also announced the launch of the Comes With Music service that was originally announced in December 2007. This service allows you to download, listen to, and keep as many songs as you want (even listening 24/7) over a full year period for free (cost included with device purchase). I imagine this will encourage people to listen to more and even different types of music over the year as well.

October 2, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Microsoft

Nokia announces 5800 XpressMusic touch screen S60 device

I have to admit that I never tried the mid-range Nokia XpressMusic devices before and always considered them as "feature phones for the masses", but with this latest announcement I think I'll have to start checking them out. The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is Nokia's first touch screen S60 mobile device (as pointed out by a fellow enthusiast they had a touch screen device a while ago) that runs the new S60 5th Edition. The 5800 XpressMusic integrates touch with haptics and more. The touch screen is both finger and stylus friendly so you have different text entry and navigation options.

October 2, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Hardware

LG Renoir has an 8 megapixel camera and high end features

LG makes some very nice high end mobile phones and is pushing the limits with their new full touchscreen 8 megapixel LG-KC910 (aka Renoir) device that goes on sale in early October in Europe. This is the successor to the LG Viewty and at first glance appears to be quite a device. As we have been talking about lately on Mobile Tech Roundup the lines are now pretty much gone between feature phones and smartphones and devices like this just confirm that.

October 2, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Hardware

Should Palm drop their Linux plans and embrace Android?

While browsing for mobile news and reviews this morning I came across a Fortune article that I thought had some very valid points and was an interesting read. The Why Palm Needs Android article makes the case for three reasons why Palm should consider the Android OS on future devices rather than rolling out its own Linux operating system sometime in the future. I think Palm should at least consider the idea, especially since their revenues keep going down.

October 1, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Agendus integrated PIM application available for BlackBerry devices

Personal information management (PIM) is a key component of mobile devices and for years I used iambic Agendus on my Palm OS devices since it offered a consolidated way to manage my calendar, contacts, and tasks. I also use software like this now on my Windows Mobile devices and have tried some on S60 as well. I just read the press release announcing that Agendus for BlackBerry is now available for US$19.95 and also works with the desktop component.

September 30, 2008 by Matthew Miller in BlackBerry

Nokia ceasing development of its own business mobility solutions, what does this mean?

I was reading a recent post on the Nokia Conversations site about some changes going on at Nokia. The first was the stepping down of Bob Iannucci, CTO of Nokia. And then the big news that Nokia is changing its approach to the enterprise by ceasing to develop or market its own business mobility solutions. I have been using and loving my Nokia E71 device and was worried about future Eseries devices when I heard about this announcement. However, the enterprise press release is still not crystal clear to me because it does state that Nokia will work with Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and others to bring Nokia devices and applications to market so I am not sure what will be changing.

September 30, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Microsoft