Thanks to the diligent folks at Mobile Review, we now have the leaked press shots of the Motorola i465. So what does the handset look like? Mostly Shrek on a bad hair day. The i465 iDEN features a full QWERTY keyboard, probably a VGA camera, Bluetooth2.0 and of course some people’s all time favorite; iDEN PTT. Other specs are in the gray area, but if you’re a text message junky, this one’s for you then. A smart guess is that Boost Mobile might want to pick this little man up since it doesn’t really have a QWERTY under its belt. Just sayin’…
So exactly how did you feel when you read about the quad-band 3G BlackBerry Bold coming to Japan? If you live in Japan I’m sure you grinning from ear to ear, but the rest of us felt sad and T-Mobile will be feeling a bit of that sadness. Well, to make matters more gloomy (again for the crowd outside Japan) guess what else is happening? The iPhone 3G is going to sell in Japan for FREE! That’s right, freakin’ free. Why you ask. Because the Japanese are not into it at all. So to gain their attention, SoftBank Mobile is going to offer the iPhone 3G for free. So let’s get this straight, the iPhone 3G starved crowd gets an iPhone for $99, and AT&T feels like a saint. The –i-don’t-want-to-have-anything-to-do-with-an-iPhone crowd gets free iPhones. That’s just sick. Anyway, details are that SoftBank’s “iPhone for everybody Campaign” will offer the iPhone 3G 8GB for free or the iPhone 3G 16GB for $117 to new subscribers. There is a mandatory 2-year contract (big surprise), but the iPhone data plan will run for $44.75 per month as opposed to the standard $60. So the bottom line is, new SoftBank subscribers are looking at an instant saving of around $230 on either iPhone 3G model since standard pricing is $230 for the 8GB and $350 for the 16GB. Also they’re saving over $15 each month on data. I have only one thing to say to AT&T; growl.
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One of the worst things that can happen to any product is getting named wrong. Then again there are times when a product is given a smashing name, only to become the literal translation of the moniker. Yes, fate and philosophy are complicating, and it seems like AT&T’s Quickfire is just learning how ironic the world is and so are Quickfire users. Remember that there was news about Quickfire being pulled off the shelves, well now it AT&T has gone given existing Quickfire users a heads up; you’re Quickfire is likely to blow. Well if you charge it the wrong way it will. Here’s the official word from AT&T;
Please take special care when charging your Quickfire GTX75 mobile phone. There have been a few reports of significant overheating of the phone when the AC Charger adapter is inserted incorrectly and forced into the phone. The clearly marked, embossed arrow on the AC Charger adapter should always be face-up on the same side as the display screen of the Quickfire when it is inserted into the phone. See the diagram below for proper positioning and insertion of the AC Charger adapter into the phone. You should never force the AC Charger adapter into the phone.
There you have it, the Quickfire is quick on catching fire. Corny, ironic and downright pathetic. Thanks AT&T.
You know the most annoying thing about desk jobs these days is that you spend all your office time at your computer, and then your cell phone just goes bananas with text messages and your dazed as to what to do. Keep working at the PC or change tempo, turn to cell phone and start replying to whoever is texting you. Well at least for those who struggle with this problem on a BlackBerry, there is now a solution. Developers Cartado have come out with a BlackBerry application, which once installed on your Berry will forward all text messages to a chosen email, where you can not only read the sms, you can also reply. Let me repeat, you can read the sms and you can also reply. No need to get up from your PC, no need to work on two separate devices at the same time. And the best part is that this nifty little app is free. Generally free, unless you want to pay a onetime (rather reasonable) payment of €4.98 ($6.27 USD) for a premium version that allows you to: send multiple texts from within one email, forward and save all texts to an email account of your choosing, limit your outgoing texts (useful if you don’t have an unlimited text plan) and receive email confirmations for each sent text. Now let’s see Cortado put some of this love on other brands.
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News had been in the wild for quite some time that the Motorola Q9n aka Napoleon was coming to Verizon. Well as facts are finally materializing, seems the Motorola has indeed brought out the Napoleon, but it’s not going on Verizon. Instead, the handset has been picked up the government. Images of the Napoleon have been appearing on web, but these are the handsets that are being resold on Craiglist or eBay, which is where you should be heading if you want one. Reports on the handset say it’s pretty good, possibly the best Q yet. How come Verizon didn’t pick it up? Maybe waiting for Moto to give them a better handset, or maybe Moto doesn’t have the great result in sales numbers which it wanted from the Q9. Either case, the handset does suffer from BlackBerry envy. So who’s buying?
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Guess what the Japanese are getting? A quad-band 3G Blackberry Bold! That’s right, while T-Mobile users in the United States and Europe wait for the 3G BlackBerry Bold, DoCoMo in Japan has done the Berryishly unthinkable. So what does having a quad-band 3G BlackBerry Bold mean? Only 2100, 1900, 850 and 800 MHz bands of UMTS/HSDPA. And just in case you’re wondering what the 800 MHz band of UMTS/HSDPA is; it’s a part of DoCoMo’s FOMA Plus Area network which is used in rural areas where the low-frequency spectrum is better able to navigate long distances and mountainous terrain. T-Mobileres green with envy yet?
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Finally Nokia Flagship stores got their act together and the 5800 XpressMusic is good to go. The handset is very light, enough to make you wonder if they forget to put in the battery. But better than a bulk o brick any day. The Flagship device features a resistive touchscreen which requires a double click most of the time, once for highlighting and once for opening. For some this may irksome, other may get used to it and embrace the phone. And of course the 5th edition of the S60 is awesome hands down.Here’s a little video demo of the device, courtesy BGR.
Nokia seems to be making a point of having a bad year. First the nonsense with the N86, and now with the 5800 XpressMusic. For the Symbian crazy crowd whom we told that the 5800 XpressMusic was in-stock and selling as of Feb 25, 2009 at Nokia Flagship stores, things took a very unpleasant turn. Oh sure the handsets showed up at the store all right, it’s just that the employees couldn’t sell them to you lot. Why? Have they gotten greedy and decided to keep them all for themselves? Hardly, this is a recession hit economy we’re talking about, not some fake horror movie. Nope, the employees have nothing against you, they just have a seriously messed up inventory system. The stock hasn’t been entered into the database and, hence, they can’t charge you for it. Worst part, till the time of this writing, the handset is still a no-show in New York and Chicago. If you’re planning on heading down to a Flagship store, call ahead and save yourself the exasperation of finding out after you announce to your friends you’ll be coming back with the Mother of all Symbian.
One of life’s many cruel facts is that no matter how much talk time and battery life your handset manufacturer promises, it will never be the end all. You will still run out of juice right when you need it most. Now there are solutions to the problem, and portable chargers have a very loyal fan following. Now for those who want to invest under $40 in a portable charger, a very interesting option has been put forward by the London-based Devotec Industries. The unique thing about this charger is the Solar aspect.
The Devotec Solar Charger is a small portable battery that can be used to charge a number of mobile devices on the go. It packs 1800 mAh of juice which is plenty to keep you talking in the worst of times. The entire front face of the battery is a solar cell, allowing you to charge it using the sun instead of sucking the sap from nearby power grids. This makes life on the go easier, how hard is it to stick out the charger under the sun? also, if you leave the battery in the sun while charging a device with it will result in reducing battery drain significantly.
Unlike most cheap solar or non-solar chargers, the Devotec Solar Charger is made of solid plastic around the solar cell. One end of the charger is home to a single DC-out port and the other end holds two LED indicators and a USB port. The USB port will let you charge the battery by plugging it into a computer. Sweet! There are two options available, the Standard Pack and the Extended Pack. Both packs come with AC chargers while the extended pack of the charger is available with a multi-country level charger while.
Want one, check out Devotec’s Solar Charger product page.
Good news for those waiting impatiently for Windows Mobile 7. In what is called a Strategic Update Meeting this Tuesday, Steve Ballmer of Microsoft went into details about Windows Mobile; what it means within the Microsoft setup, its fate in the future and yes the release of Window Mobile 7 in the year 2010.
Microsoft has also owned Windows Mobile, with Ballmer saying that the mobile version of the OS has about 2,000 dedicated employees and nearly a billion dollars in operating expenses. Of course the mobile OS market is a tough one. Windows Mobile currently lags behind Symbian and RIM, it’s also considered unprofitable within Microsoft (Ballmer’s words). Then there’s stiff competition from both Apple as well as Google’s Android. But Ballmer hasn’t given up hopes on Windows Mobile, he thinks the mobile OS has a fighting chance because many Windows devices have low price points, not to mention the fact that WinMo isn’t open source and free like Android.
Oh and if there really is a fan club in the making for possible handsets from Microsoft, a possible ‘Zune Phone’ sorry to burst your bubble and tear up your club anthem, Microsoft will NOT be manufacturing any handsets. According to Ballmer, Microsoft is not going down anywhere near the road Apple and RIM took by offering end-to-end solutions. MS sees itse;f focusing entirely on the software side of mobile devices. WinMo will get a 6.5 upgrade this year, followed by version 7 next year. As Ballmer put it; “There will be really shared technology across Windows and Windows mobile. The browser is an example, the presentation surface is an example. Some day even the kernel will be an example.” Just make it shiny, fun and interesting.
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