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The Mobile Gadgeteer

Matthew Miller provides you with news, commentary and in-depth reviews of the latest in mobile gadgetry such as tablets, cutting edge smartphones, and portable gaming.

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

Want a subsidized Acer netbook for $99?

I am pretty pleased with my MSI Wind netbook and use it as my main Windows machine at home and on the road. I found it for US$400, after Live Search Cashback credit, and thought it was a great deal. Engadget is reporting that you soon may be able to pick up a $99 netbook that is subsidized by AT&T and comes with wireless broadband. Without the agreement, the Acer Aspire One will cost you US$499.99, which is actually quite high for a 8.9 inch netbook.

December 8, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Networking

Google Android OS ported and running on the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet

The T-Mobile G1 is an impressive device that has been performing rock solidly for me these past few weeks. The idea of running the Google Android device was to have it move from phones to other devices in the future and according to Linux Devices an enterprising developer has ported Android to the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. I enjoy using the N810 and would love to try out the Android OS on this Linux-based device. With its WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, the device is more than capable of staying connected for Google syncing.

December 8, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Linux

Have someone tough to shop for? Try the new Gizmine electronics store

Are you trying to find something different that your techy fan doesn't have? Do you enjoy browsing through electronics stores and wish you could visit Tokyo's electronic district? The folks who bring us some of the best mobile phones and ultra-mobile products at Dynamism launched a new online store, Gizmine. They have over 500 products available now with up to 1,000 planned before the end of the year.

December 6, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Turn your iPod touch into a VoIP phone with Truphone

I've talked about the Truphone VoIP solution here on this blog a couple of times in the past and have had it on my iPhone for several months. Now that my ZDNet Smartphones & Cell Phones blog focuses on phones you may be asking why I am posting about a phone solution here on the Mobile Gadgeteer. A new Truphone client was just released for the Apple iPod touch that turns it into a VoIP phone, but it is not a cellphone. Highly respected VoIP blogger and friend Andy Abramson has an excellent blog post on why TruPhone on the iPod touch is a game changer in the VoIP space.

December 3, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Networking

Holiday Gift Guide 2008: Portable digital video players

A couple days ago I posted my Holiday Guide for MP3/audio players and a couple of commenters asked where ARCHOS and Cowon were on the list. I tried to stay focused on audio focused devices in that guide, although many digital media players today can play both audio and video. This guide focuses on devices that have the primary function of video playback, that similarly can also play audio.While the iPod touch and even the Microsoft Zune are very good digital video players that many find better than a dedicated personal video player, I am not including them in this guide because the focus of those devices is music first so you can check them out in the MP3 player guide if you are interested in them.

November 29, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Holiday Gift Guide 2008: GPS personal navigation devices

As a person who travels for work quite often and as a father to daughters who play sports all over the place, a GPS navigation device is an essential piece of equipment for me. Most of my mobile phones have GPS receivers and they work well in a pinch, but it is a much better experience to have a large screen dedicated navigation device and these are quite popular today with prices that are very reasonable. There are also high end devices packed with features and I'll present the latest high end and lower end devices from the major GPS manufacturers in this guide.

November 26, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Cyber Monday deal: Six months free service on the TeleNav Shotgun

I wrote up some first impressions and experiences of the TeleNav Shotgun internet-connected personal navigation device early last week and was just informed of a super Cyber Monday special they will have on 1 December. If you purchase the TeleNave Shotgun then you can get six months of free service by using the coupon code 'sgcybermonday' during checkout.

November 25, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Enterprise Software

Holiday Gift Guide 2008: MP3 players

I rarely see people carrying portable CD players anymore as it is much more convenient (size of players, amount of music, battery life) to burn your music to digital format or simply buy it online and download it to your PC/Mac. Many MP3 players support video too, but I'll focus on just MP3/music capability in this guide. Even though the Apple iPod is the leader in the MP3 category there are still many other solutions available that you may want to consider this holiday season, including products from Microsoft, SanDisk, Sony, Slacker, Creative, and more. It is actually a bit surprising how many other models of MP3 players there still are on the market, but it really is tough to compete with the iPod and Zune players now that even their prices are dropping significantly.

November 22, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Apple

Thanks Microsoft, I will now subscribe to the Zune Pass

Larry posted the news about the updated Zune Pass music subscription service and after checking out the press release in detail I am going to sign back up for the monthly service. Getting to keep some songs for my own collection each month was the kicker that pushed me over the edge because now there is some real tangible value from the service in case it ever ends.

November 19, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Windows

T-Mobile announces the cameo wireless photo frame to display camera phone images

Do you have a camera-enabled phone, but don't know what to do with all of those captured images? Would you like to share those images with family and friends? Well, T-Mobile and Parrot have come together to launch the T-Mobile cameo, a MMS photo frame, that allows anyone to send photos from their cellphone to the picture frame. The T-Mobile cameo is available starting today for US$99.99 with a US$9.99 monthly recurring charge for unlimited messaging.

November 18, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Networking

Zune 3.1 firmware gives you 3 new games, price drops for flash Zunes too

It has been 2 months since the major Zune 3.0 update and couple of new devices were released. Today Microsoft released the Zune 3.1 update that adds 3 new games and makes some stability and performance improvements. Also, they should be announcing a small price cut on the Zune tomorrow in time for the holidays.

November 18, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Review: TeleNav Shotgun internet connected personal navigation device

Last week TeleNav announced their new Shotgun personal navigation device (PND). The Shotgun takes the tried and true TeleNav navigation software (found on many carrier phones as AT&T Navigator, Sprint Navigation, etc.) and places it on a very nice piece of hardware. I was sent an evaluation unit to check out and wanted to offer a few first impressions, along with plenty of device pics and screenshots in my image gallery and the video below. The TeleNav Shotgun is available now for US$299.

November 16, 2008 by Matthew Miller in CXO

Boingo to provide WiFi service on Washington State ferries

Boingo Wireless provides WiFi services all over the world and I have used them on the past in Spain and London. They have been busy adding more wireless networks and today announced that they will be providing the services for the Washington State ferry system. About 1/4 of the employees in my office ride a ferry to work in Seattle, it is the largest ferry fleet in the U.S., and so I am sure they will be happy to hear they can now standardize on Boingo and get access on the ferry and when traveling out of the State. There are 22 ferries and 11 terminals that Boingo will be working on when you travel on the waters of Puget Sound.

November 16, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Networking

MobileTechRoundup show #154, A Bold step was taken on the way to the Shotgun wedding

Kevin, James, and I were all together last weekend before recording MobileTechRoundup show #154 to celebrate the wedding of Kevin and Barbara. Congratulations again to the both of them. In this show we talked a bit about the device I bought on the drive up to the wedding and the device James used to get from the airport to the wedding. James and I also received the new Richard Solo 1800 battery solution for iPhones and iPods so we spent a few minutes chatting about that solution.

November 13, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Hardware

Nokia working to reduce traffic congestion

I had a nice chat with Ross Lamont from Nokia this morning regarding the Nokia Legends campaign (my interview should be in the next MobileTechRoundup podcast) and he mentioned that their Mobile Millenium project talked about on the Nokia Telegraph "virtual paper" was moving forward with a larger scale testing program. Nokia issued a press release announcing the launch of the pilot program that will collect and study traffic data received from GPS-enable mobile phones, particularly the N95, E71, and N96. Nokia Research Center is working with UC Berkeley and NAVTEQ on this project.

November 11, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Microsoft