LG VX5400 Phone (Verizon Wireless)

Released for Verizon Wireless, the LG VX5400 is a mobile mainstay with a twist. Featuring all the essentials, it's also Bluetooth capable to take advantage of the wonders of wireless. The VGA camera is useful for photos on the fly, and the large color display and keypad is encased in a compact design. The one-touch speakerphone and speaker independent voice command functions round out the package, making mobile more convenient than ever.

FEATURES

• Compact, stylish design with internal antenna and mirror-like external LCD
• Integrated VGA camera with customizable brightness, white balance, shutter sound, color effects, and night mode, and an image editor to zoom, rotate, and crop
• Speaker-Independent Voice Commands to access functions such as Call, Send Msg To, Go To, Check, Lookup, and My Account
• Bluetooth wireless technology supports headset, handsfree, and object push for vCard and vCalendar profiles

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Why a gPhone (Google Phone) is a lovely… no, an awful.. no, a lovely idea

At last count, “consumers” was the No. 1 answer to Dana Blankenhorn’s survey question asking who a Google Phone (gPhone) will help the most. Some are speculating that the gPhone will get announced along with some other news that Google is releasing on November 5.

I hate and love the idea of a gPhone. Just the thought conjures up images that are similar in nature to the ones that inspired last week’s post about taking the “inter” out of “Internet” where, among other things, I talked about how the natural evolution of Google Apps will lead to Google to offering its own del.icio.us killer. Google really has no choice and to the extent that the November 5 annoucements are supposedly about a bunch of social tools, maybe we’ll see a social bookmarking service like del.icio.us. For now however, I’ve renewed my interest in del.icio.us thanks to the awesome FireFox plug-in for it.

In many ways, it’s my love affair with del.icio.us and its frictionless Firefox extension that make me hate the idea of a gPhone because the gPhone will never be about frictionless mobile access to del.icio.us. That honor, is of course, reserved for the yPhone (the Yahoo Phone; del.icio.us is a part of Yahoo proper).

Today, mobile access to popular online services is pretty hit or miss. Occasionally, you’ll bump into what Sun’s Jonathan Schwartz referred to as a religious experience (it was Google Maps on a BlackBerry Pearl). But these experiences are few and far between. More recently, cell phone makers looking for a leg up on the competition have programmed a potpourri of default widgets (and sometimes just bookmarks) into their handsets so that users can get better than average access to some of the more popular services on the net (ie: Google’s YouTube, Yahoo’s Flickr, etc.) not to mention nearly seamless access to the carrier’s services (eg: Verizon’s VCast).

Recently, while at the Digital Life Show in NYC, Palm CEO Ed Colligan told me about how accessing your favorite services is often a painful experience and how Palm’s new $99 Centro looks to eliminate some of that pain when it comes to some of the more popular services. For example, Palm has gone the extra mile to make it easy to post that picture you just took with the Centro into Flickr.

But, let’s be honest. When it comes to mobile access to our favorite online services, we are waiting for that same religious experience that Schwartz had when he first experienced Google Maps on his BlackBerry (OK, what we really want is to be able to leave our PC’s behind as much as possible or maybe even to be able to ditch them altogether). The question is, who can deliver it? Apple certain delivered some of that in the iPhone. When connected to a WiFi network, no other handset comes close to the iPhone’s Web browsing experience. Via AT&T’s slower EDGE network? That’s more like the mobile Internet that Apple’s TV ads say the iPhone isn’t about.

The truth is we all want a religious experience with the services we use. What you use and what I use may be different. But no phone on the market delivers a religious experience for the collection of Google services that make good sense to show up on the phone. Google Maps is of course an obvious candidate. Using a Java applet, the Helio Ocean that I have that I’ll be showing off at Mobile Expo marries its GPS system to Google Maps (although the closest it comes to pinpointing my location is pinpointing the Sprint occupied cell tower that the Ocean is connected to). But I would’t call it a religious experience.

As core applications go, Gmail is an obvious candidate but I’m not so sure that the POP3 mail clients found on other phones (Palm devices, Windows Mobile, iPhone, etc.) can be that improved upon. Mobile browsers are known for not dealing with Javascript (embedded in the Gmail UI) very well. But if the gPhone can manage it, one feature of Gmail that I would very much look forward to on a mobile device is GMail’s ability to view attachments as HTML or, even better, as editable and innately shareable Google Docs-based documents. For many business people, that would be a game changer.

“Search” clearly goes without saying (particularly local search which can be found in Google’s existing base of mobile apps under Goog-411). Although I wouldn’t deem it a religious experience, the Live Search team at Microsoft has done a very slick job with the search application it has built for the Windows Mobile operating system. Of all the apps that I use on the Motorola Q that I carry around with me, that’s the one app on the Q that I can honestly say I actually like to use. Provided the phone can record videos and still images, mobile YouTube (up and download) is another obvious candidate as would be a mobile version of Google’s Picasa (already exists, but a gPhone version would be much better) that could sync with both a desktop copy of Picasa as well as Google Picasa’s Web-based photosharing service (called Web Albums). And, no gPhone would be complete without a mobile version of Google Reader.

I could continue to list off Google applications that I wouldn’t mind to find beautifully executed in a gPhone, but I don’t need to go any further to make the point that this sort of complete mobile portfolio of Google’s apps and services doesn’t exist — at least not as a religious experience — in any handset that I know of. As a user of many of those services, I’d relish the idea.

But on the other hand, I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t also say that I hate the idea. Going back to that dangler I left behind (the one where I mention taking the “inter” out of “Internet”), it is precisely this sort of tying of Web services to hardware (ie: Real’s Rhapsody to TiVo, a gPhone to Google’s services, etc.) that will ultimately turn the Internet into a bunch of loosely coupled intranets. Yes, the providers of these solutions will tell you that you can still get there from here (for example, to Yahoo’s del.icio.us from a gPhone). But you won’t want to because the experience simply won’t measure up to the way the phone so frictionlessly integrates with Google. Instead, you’ll make a decision as to where your loyalties lie and, pretty soon you’ll have your gPhone and your friend will have a yPhone and your other friend will have an iPhone, and, well, you get the picture.

Three final points. First, as I think about the idea of a gPhone becoming a reality, I realize how badly someone (Apple? Google? Both?) screwed up on the iPhone. Apple has already taken some heat for not being very developer friendly. But Apple and Google could have absolutely nailed it if the iPhone was the gPhone as well. Think about it. Apple has all the on-line services that Google doesn’t and Google has all the on-line services that Apple doesn’t. Paired up, the igPhone would have been 10 times more formidable than it already is.

Second, since Google hasn’t teamed up with Apple or any other entertainment “provider,” it will be very interesting to see where the gPhone goes from an entertainment perspective. No serious smart phone (particularly one with the built-in ability to play YouTube videos) can come to the market without some sort of music play. The only question is whether or not Google will finally enter that game or, to the extent that the gPhone platform is an open Linux platform as many are reporting it is, will that “feature” be left to third parties. Universal is clearly looking for a major player to help it and the rest of the record industry slow down the Apple juggernaut. How could it not be talking to Google with so many reports of a Google-powered handset coming to the market?

Finally, when Google finally releases a handset, it will be the second company after Apple to have such sizeable clout in certain digital circles that it, instead of the typical cell carriers, will get to call the shots. With most phone manufacturers, the carriers decide what features work on the phones and how. With the iPhone, the iTunes customer base afforded so much leverage to Apple that Jobs had his pick of the carrier litter. Google has similar clout and will equally get to call the shots. If and when this happens, your guess is as good as mine as to how serious a game changer it will be. For example, delivering video to handsets is a big business. YouTube is already a channel that’s being used by movie and television studios. That business could increase 100 or more fold once Google has access to the millions of pockets and pocketbooks it might eventually have access to.

How do you think it will be a game changer?

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Sprint to offer Blackberry Pearl 8130 Next Month

High-tech phone battles heating up

It's the attack of the iClones. Or you can call them the jPhones.

No competitor to Apple is likely to replicate what Steve Jobs did with so much panache: combine a wireless telephone, a music player and a Web browser with boundless hype.

But as partners LG and Verizon Wireless prepare to release their answer to the iPhone, they're betting they can provide a more user-friendly product.

The Voyager is one of numerous less-expensive wireless phones with music-playing capability.

Expected to be released in November, the Voyager is part of a new generation of music phones affiliated with the Verizon network. It has many of the features of the iPhone, but offers them differently.

The Voyager plays music, but the device itself only holds 30 songs, compared to the iPhone's 2,000. To expand, the customer can buy a card that expands it up to 4,000 songs.

Sheldon Jones, Verizon's Delaware spokesman, said this will help keep the price down. People can pay for as much music memory as meets their needs, he said. The price of the Voyager has not yet been set. (The iPhone sells for $399, down from its initial price of $599)

One of the Voyager's most striking features is the keyboard. Like the iPhone, it has an on-screen, virtual keypad. But flip it open, and inside there's a miniature QWERTY keyboard. Touch screens can be finicky, and this will provide an easier, more tactile experience, said Jones.

The device uses the 3 gigabyte EV-DO technology to connect to the Internet, faster than the 2 gb EDGE network available on the iPhone.

The Voyager is the next-generation successor to the Chocolate Phone, LG and Verizon's MP3 player with a numerical keypad.

Verizon's other new entries into the music phone market include the youth-oriented Juke by Samsung, a pint-sized music-player/phone that flicks open to reveal a keypad. And there's the Venus, with an upper screen to display video content and a lower screen with a control pad. That will allow people to listen to music and send text messages at the same time.

"For certain audiences, that'll be huge," Jones said.

Sprint released the LG Muziq around the same time the iPhone was released. It has a built-in transmitter that can send music to their car stereo, and does over-the-air downloads. It sells for $99 with a two-year agreement.

"Sprint believes any additional interest in advanced phones that offer applications like music and video is good for the industry as a whole," said Sprint spokeswoman Laura Porter. But once consumers see what features are available, "they'll find Sprint has the pricing, speed and variety they are looking for."

Tim Scannell, president of Shoreline Research in Quincy, Mass., said many of the iPhone competitors will probably be released during the first quarter of 2008, but by then, Apple will already have moved the iPhone several steps ahead, he said.

The fact that the iPhone is now more affordable helps defend it against competitors trying to gain market share on cost, Scannell said.

Verizon has the benefit of a higher-speed network, and may appeal to those not comfortable with a touch-screen keyboard. But the marketplace these days is less than kind to non-iPhone music phones, Scannell said.

"The Voyager is not an iPhone. It's pretty cool, but it's not an iPhone," Scannell said. Verizon is "fighting against that 'you-have-an-iPhone-and-I-don't-have-an-iPhone conundrum,' and that's going to be difficult."

Jones, of Verizon, says a large part of the iPhone's popularity comes from marketing, not a superior product.

"The iPhone had a lot of buzz. Apple does a great job of marketing. But there's one deficit there," Jones said. "Apple does not know the wireless industry. We know the wireless industry."

Mark Siegel, spokesman for AT&T, which partnered with Apple to offer the IPhone, said the iPhone sets a new standard for ease of use and functionality.

"That has spurred our competitors and other device manufacturers to take a fresh look at what they do. You see companies talking about what they are trying to come out with that can compete with the iPhone. That is a good and healthy thing. Innovation breeds innovation," Siegel said.

Kent German, senior editor for the technology Web site CNet, said there are other appealing products on the market that do some of what the iPhone does.

The Sony Ericsson W580 "has a decent music player in it." It has a function where, with a flick of the wrist, the music track changes. "It's a tad gimmicky, but it's kind of cool." He said he also likes the second-generation version of the Chocolate phone.

Speaking of gimmicks, there's the Samsung Upstage, a two-sided device the user flips back and forth between music and the phone. It sells for just $99 with a two-year contract with Sprint.

And the Nokia N95 has a strong media player, a good Internet connection and a camera that's "way better than the iPhone," German said.

"There's not one device right now that is going to offer everything the iPhone offers in a way the iPhone offers it -- the design, integration with Apple, compatibility with iTunes, which is what people really want," German said.

But he said he's still not sold on the iPhone itself.

"The iPhone lacks too much," he said, noting its slower Internet connection speed, its low-tech camera, its inability to send picture messages and failure to use Stereo Bluetooth. "For the music phone to end all music phones, it should have these things."

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AT&T looks to improve its local cell service

Kerrville residents who have wireless telephone service with AT&T can look forward to what the company claims are “quality and capacity” enhancements as part of its $1.25 billion investment in its Texas network for 2007, AT&T announced Wednesday.

The enhanced service is the result of new cell sites and improvements to existing cell towers along Interstate 10 and 13 other state highways.

“Customers in the Kerrville area might notice there are expanded places where maybe they didn’t have the best reception before,” said Natasha Collins, an AT&T spokesman.

She said the voice quality of calls also should improve. “If they heard a garbled noise before, they may not now, with the enhanced coverage.”

Collins said customers should be able to send more text messages and photos over the wireless network, but added that these and other enhancements might not be evident right away, as some of the network improvements are scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year. She added that not every customer is guaranteed improved voice quality, messaging and photo capabilities. “Some customers might already have great quality in voice service, but if there’s one spot along the highway — if they normally drop a call there — they may not now. But it’s not a blanket guarantee.”

Cingular Wireless customers won’t see any changes on their monthly bills as a result of the enhancements, Collins said, because AT&T budgets money each year for beefing up service to its customers. It’s a “proactive” measure, Collins said.

Kerrville is one of 17 Texas cities targeted for improved wireless service by AT&T, including Boerne and San Antonio. For now, the city is essentially an out-of-network community, with customers billed what some refer to as “roaming charges” each time AT&T has to use competitors’ cell towers to make phone connections in the Kerrville area. Collins didn’t think roaming charges per se were being applied to customers’ bills, but said she would look into the matter.

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Verizon Wireless Expanding Network Coverage

North Dakotans who want to do more on their cell phones than make calls now have a lot more options.

Verizon wireless says it has expanded its high-speed wireless network along the I-94 and I-29 corridor.

What it means is customers with the properly-equipped phones will be able to access all the information they need from their home or office in just seconds.

And that includes multimedia, such as music, video and games.

Verizon says customers will be able to download such files almost ten times faster than those who use a different network.

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An answer to iPhone-Verizon’s Voyager one-ups competition with hardware keyboard

NEW YORK - In time for the holidays, Verizon Wireless is launching a cell phone that looks a lot like the hottest phone this year: Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

Like the iPhone, the LG Voyager features a large touch screen, a camera and extensive multimedia, Web browsing and e-mail capabilities.

It one-ups the iPhone, however, by folding open lengthwise to reveal a QWERTY keyboard and a second, nontouch sensitive screen. The lack of a hardware keyboard has been one of the main complaints about the iPhone.

The Voyager will connect to Verizon Wireless’ latest data network, providing speeds much higher than the AT&T network the iPhone uses. The Voyager also has direct access to Verizon Wireless’ online music store.

The Voyager will not come with a large built-in memory for songs and video, however, offering instead a slot for memory cards up to 8 gigabytes. Nor are its screens as large as the iPhone’s.

It’s an open question whether the Voyager can encroach on the iPhone’s cachet or match its ease of use. Apple has sold more than 1 million units since the phone-cum-iPod hit the market June 29.

In announcing its holiday lineup, Verizon Wireless did not say how much the Voyager or three other new phones will cost. It also didn’t give a specific launch date, saying only that they will be in stores before Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, Microsoft Corp. took the wraps off its secondgeneration Zune digital music players Tuesday, showing three models that bring the software maker’s offerings more in line with Apple’s market-leading iPod.

One model — available in black — has an 80-gigabyte hard drive and a 3.2-inch screen. It’s slimmer than last year’s Zune, which had a 30-GB hard drive and a smaller screen. Microsoft also will sell a smaller, flash memory-based Zune, similar in shape and size to the iPod Nano, in pink, green, black and red with either 4 GB or 8 GB of storage.

Like the original Zune, the new models include an FM radio tuner and the ability to wirelessly share songs with other Zune owners.

The latest generation sports a new navigation button Microsoft calls the Zune Pad, and uses Wi-Fi to sync music, movies and photos wirelessly and automatically with users’ PCs.

The new Zunes are set to go on sale in mid-November. The 4-GB Zune will cost $149, the 8-GB will sell for $199 and the 80-GB model will cost $249. The prices match those of Apple’s iPod lineup.

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Mobile Notebook: Panasonic And Verizon Wireless Announce Certification Of Toughbook 52 Semi-Rugged Mobile PC Wwith BroadbandAccess Built-In

Panasonic Computer Solutions Company, manufacturer of durable, reliable Panasonic Toughbook mobile computers, and Verizon Wireless recently announced the certification and exclusive availability of the new semi-rugged Toughbook 52 with built-in access to the EV-DO Revision A-based BroadbandAccess service from Verizon Wireless.

Introduced last month, the semi-rugged Toughbook 52 includes the Santa Rosa chipset from Intel and offers all the processing power of a desktop replacement notebook in a form factor engineered from the ground up to withstand the most challenging environments. The widescreen notebook with spill-resistant keyboard and a built-in handle includes, like all Toughbook mobile PCs, a magnesium alloy case, flexible internal connectors, and a shock-mounted hard drive and LCD, all of which contribute to Panasonic’s reputation for producing the industry’s most durable and reliable notebooks.

Panasonic and Verizon Wireless have made high-performance embedded EV-DO solutions available in Toughbook notebooks since mid-2005. Today, every Toughbook notebook computer is certified for use on the Verizon Wireless BroadbandAccess with EV-DO Rev. A service, allowing users to download complex files and email attachments at average speeds of 600 kbps to 1.4 Mbps, and upload files at speeds averaging 500 – 800 kbps.

“Both Verizon Wireless and Panasonic are laser-focused on providing best-in-class wireless computing solutions. Verizon Wireless has built a fast and reliable mobile data network and Panasonic has invested heavily in R&D and testing to ensure that we deliver easy to use embedded wireless solutions that keep the mobile workforce connected to mission-critical data,” said Victoria Obenshain, director, wireless strategy, Panasonic Computer Solutions Company. “The result of this joint commitment is that Panasonic now offers a wide range of mobile broadband computing solutions built for use on Verizon Wireless’ data network.”

“Mobility and reliability are intrinsic to today’s business model and the Toughbook 52 provides both,” said Patrick Stokes, vice president-national distribution for Verizon Wireless. “This combination gives business customers the tools they need to stay competitive, engaged and productive. The Verizon Wireless network and the Toughbook 52 are the efficiency tools for today’s business.”

Pricing and Availability

The BroadbandAccess-enabled semi-rugged Toughbook 52 includes the Sierra Wireless embedded MC5725 PCI Express Mini Card and VZAccess Manager software and starts at an estimated street price of $1,899.

All Toughbook notebooks are customizable and available through authorized Panasonic Toughbook resellers nationwide, “buy now” resellers accessible online via www.panasonic.com/business/toughbook/purchase.asp and at MicroCenters nationwide or the RCS Experience store in midtown Manhattan (Madison Avenue at 56th Street). Please visit www.panasonic.com/toughbook for more information.

About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable wireless voice and data network, serving 60.7 million customers. The largest US wireless company and largest wireless data provider, based on revenues, Verizon Wireless is headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 66,000 employees nationwide. The company is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (VZ) and Vodafone . Find more information on the Web at www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

About Panasonic Computer Solutions Company
Panasonic Computer Solutions Company empowers the mobile workforce. The company is a unit of Panasonic Corporation of North America, which is the principal North American subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (MC). Panasonic has delivered reliable, durable mobile solutions through its Toughbook line of notebook computers for fourteen years and has expanded the boundaries of wireless communications technology through a broad portfolio of products, ranging from fully rugged, industrial strength notebook computers and tablet PCs to semi-rugged and business-rugged thin and light and ultraportable notebooks. A core manufacturer, Matsushita and its subsidiaries control the entire process of design, manufacture, quality assurance, service and support. As a result, Panasonic Toughbooks are known for having the lowest failure rates in the industry. Government, industrial, and commercial users—from Fortune 1,000 companies to small businesses—rely on solutions from Panasonic, wherever their work takes them.

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Wi-Fi BlackBerry Duel: T-Mobile's Curve vs. AT&T's BlackBerry 8820

We take these two devices for a wireless spin side by side to see which is the better performer, and which deserves to be crowned the Wi-Fi BlackBerry king.

Round 1 - Design

RIM Blackberry Curve

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RIM BlackBerry 8800

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Both of these phones fall strongly into the modern BlackBerry school of design, with large, QWERTY keyboards beneath the display and a trackball in between for navigation. The design differences are mostly minor, but we're sure hardcore BlackBerry addicts will have their opinions either way. Most significantly, the 8820 is taller and wider, and the two are equally thick. Screen size is identical, and the keyboards seem to be about the same size, though the keys are shaped differently. We prefer T-Mobile's preset interface, with its MyFaves favorites up front and nicer looking home screen, but otherwise the menu structure and applications are about the same.

We like the keyboard on the Curve a bit better. The discrete keys are easier to press in a hurry, as opposed to the strangely angled keys on the 8820. We like the color scheme on the 8820, with its glossy black and silver cues, but otherwise it has no design advantage.

Winner: T-Mobile's BlackBerry Curve

Round 2 - Calling

RIM Blackberry Curve

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RIM BlackBerry 8800

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The BlackBerry 8820 makes phone calls that sound better than those on the BlackBerry Curve. We tested both phones in our quiet office, and a very loud local Starbucks, and heard much more background noise on calls made with the Curve. Perhaps this is due to the "noise cancellation" technology on the 8820, or simply due to the microphone placement on the Curve, which aims the mic away from your face. In any case, calls sound noticeably better on the 8820. Still, this only tells part of the story, as each phone has some special calling features.

The BlackBerry 8820 can use AT&T's push to talk (PTT) network. We don't have any PTT buddies to test the servce, but if this is a feature you or your employer uses, it could be a deciding point. T-Mobile's BlackBerry Curve, on the other hand, uses UMA technology. We've reviewed <"a href=http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/8045.html">T-Mobile's HotSpot @Home service, and we were very impressed with the calling option. In a nutshell, the service combines Wi-Fi VoIP-style calling with traditional cell service. If you make a lot of calls somewhere you also have good Wi-Fi access, this service will probably save you money. In fact, we were very enthusiastic about the HotSpot @Home service in our initial review, but lamented the lack of viable phones. Beyond being a good choice for BlackBerry fans, the Curve is the best choice for anyone who wants to take advantage of the HotSpot @Home service. We feel this is a compelling reason to overlook the phone's middling call quality and declare it our favorite for this category.

Winner: T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve

Round 3 - Web browsing

RIM Blackberry Curve

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RIM BlackBerry 8800

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At first, we were surprised to find the Curve outpacing the 8820 in terms of Web browsing. Pages were loading quicker, but they also looked different, usually less accurate. We found the default settings were different, with JavaScript turned off, and this made the difference. Once the browsers were on equal footing, we noticed no significant difference between the two. Strangely, the two phones render the same fonts differents, even though the font family, screen size and resolution were the same. Neither was better than the other, in terms of looks or speed, and both phones loaded pages fairly quickly. Frankly, our Apple iPhone loads pages quicker under Wi-Fi, and they look much better on the iPhone's browser, but that's a comparison for another day.

Winner: Tie

Round 4 - Multimedia

RIM Blackberry Curve

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RIM BlackBerry 8800

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Both phones make more of a stab at multimedia than their previous, full-QWERTY BlackBerry brethren. First, both phones support a range of audio and video files, can store files on microSD cards, and can play audio through stereo Bluetooth headphones. Neither phone comes with music transfer software that we enjoyed using, though the BlackBerry 8820 features AT&T's music setup, which lets you play PlaysForSure tracks from Napster and Yahoo. Both phones let you use your own music files as ringtones. The differences between the two is really in the hardware.

The Curve features a 2-megapixel camera. Images were unimpressive, but would do fine in a pinch. So, if you need a lens on your phone, the Curve is your only option here. Additionally, the Curve uses a 3.5mm audio connector, which is a standard headphone jack, instead of the smaller 2.5mm connector found on the 8820. This means you can plug your own headphones into the Curve, while the 8820 will require you to buy an adapter, since one is not included. It would seem the Curve is our clear favorite, for these hardware additions, but in fact there is one glaring omission on the Curve.

Of the two phones, only the 8820 has GPS navigation. AT&T provides TeleNav for directions, while the Curve is left without any navigation options. For us, GPS is a big deal, a great find on a smartphone. We appreciate the headphone jack on the Curve, and would like to see a similar jack on, well, every phone we use, but a simple jack can't make up for GPS. Neither can a 2-megapixel camera, when sub-par images will be far less useful to us than GPS navigation.

Winner: AT&T's BlackBerry 8820

Round 5 – Value

RIM Blackberry Curve

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RIM BlackBerry 8800

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To determine value, we tried to choose comparable plans that focused more on e-mail and data, and gave us a good deal on very few minutes. On AT&T, the phone costs $300 after a rebate and contract, which is $50 more than T-Mobile's Curve. For our 8820, we chose a low-end monthly plan with 450 minutes for $40, then added BlackBerry Unlimited, which gave us 10 email addresses and unlimited data for e-mail and Web browsing. The BlackBerry Unlimited service added a whopping $45 to our monthly bill.

For the Curve, the minute plan is smaller at the same price, 300 minutes for $40 instead of 450 minutes. We also added the $10/monthly @Home service. We figure this will save us at least the difference between the two carrier's calling plans, as we'll probably make most of our calls from Wi-Fi spots, and won't dip too deeply into our "whenever" minutes. Besides, on T-Mobile, the BlackBerry Unlimited add-on costs only $20 per month, so even though we're paying an extra $10 for @Home service, we save $25 monthly on BlackBerry data. Figuring in the cost difference for the phones, the T-Mobile plan will save us $410 in the two years we're under contract.

Winner: T-Mobile Curve

And the winner is . . .

RIM Blackberry Curve

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RIM BlackBerry 8800

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It should come as no real surprise to see the Curve come out on top in this duel. Both phones were fairly evenly matched before, as they both represent the current generation of high-end BlackBerry phones. The Curve has more multimedia features, with its better headphone port and camera, though the 8820 has more important features, notably GPS navigation. In terms of Wi-Fi, the two are pretty evenly matched, until you consider UMA. The BlackBerry 8820 may make calls that sound better, but UMA has great potential for convenience and cost savings. Beyond the free minutes, just knowing that good Wi-Fi reception means good cell reception may be the best selling point of all.

Champion: T-Mobile's BlackBerry Curve

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Woman Hit With $891,985 Cell Phone Bill

WEST ALLIS - A woman was shocked earlier this month to receive a Sprint bill simulataneously thanking her for eight years' patronage and charging her almost $900,000.

Nearly two weeks later, she's still shocked at what she calls the "terrible customer service" that hasn't cleared up the problem.

Jennifer Grosshandler says she's made approximately twenty calls to Sprint representatives since receiving her bill. She says Sprint acknowledges the huge bill she received was a mistake, but haven't fixed the problem in her online bill history.

They "informed me that there was a code error entered into my account that never should have been," Grosshandler said, whose standard monthly bill is $44. "They were going to reverse it out, but I sit here two weeks later. My bills still shows the monthly statement at almost $900,000 being due in about five days, and no one from Sprint is returning my calls."

Sprint Chicago Media Representative Dave DeVries did return the call from TODAY'S TMJ4 Reporter Silvia Acevedo.

"I'm sorry to hear this complaint has not been resolved to her satisfaction," DeVries said, promising to submit Grosshandler's complaint to a "dedicated group of customer service" staff.

Grosshandler hopes the error will be corrected before the bill goes to collection agencies.

SOURCE

"I need to make sure that my financial records are clear and that I have something in my files to show that was an error on Sprint's part," Grosshandler said.

Grosshandler says she now plans to take her business elsewhere.

Imagine Renting or Selling Real Estate for $3 Ad Listing Cost

Text4Homes.com presents a low variable cost option to real estate advertising which integrates Internet and mobile technologies. This novel approach highlights tremendous ROI, convenience, immediacy, reach and variety for users.

Toronto, Ontario (PRWEB) October 2, 2007 -- Text4Homes.com pioneers an advertising model which utilizes a pay-per-lead strategy for buying, selling, and renting both private and commercial real estate in Canada. By combining the Internet with mobile text messaging, and partnering with all major wireless carriers in Canada, Text4Homes.com creates a cost-effective and instantaneous contact method for buyers, sellers, and renters.

Mass participation created by 'free information usage' drives the concept of this performance-based program. Sellers list all of their properties free of charge. When the buyer is interested in a particular property, the buyer submits their contact information through the site. The seller receives the lead on their cell phone as a text message and is billed a pay-per-contact charge.

All listings and modifications are live on the site the second they are entered into the database. Developed for those that are constantly on the move, I truly believe that Text4Homes.com is a powerful and convenient tool for cost-effective real estate sales and rental transactions.

Unlike traditional real estate sales, the Text4Homes.com method requires that the seller initiate contact with the potential buyer. Other buyer benefits include plenty of search features to help a buyer or renter narrow down their search preferences such as property type, features, and amenities. If the property profile is not currently listed on Text4Homes.com, the buyer can sign up for a free SMS alert which will immediately notify them that a property matching their criteria has just been listed on the website.

"The most attractive feature of the Text4Homes.com program is that it is in real time," says David Dion, President of 2 Rent Inc. and owner of Text4Homes.com. "All listings and modifications are live on the site the second they are entered into the database. Developed for those that are constantly on the move, I truly believe that Text4Homes.com is a powerful and convenient tool for cost-effective real estate sales and rental transactions."

To learn more about Text4Homes.com and its innovative lead-generated program, contact Craig Ingram or visit www.Text4Homes.com.

About 2 Rent Inc.

2 Rent Inc. is a privately held company with a mission to provide the most convenient and cost-effective online advertising platform by combining the power of the internet and the mobile phone. Text4Homes.com is the realization of the company's vision to become the primary market place for real estate advertising and serves to bridge the gap between private sales and real estate professionals.

SOURCE

Cell-phone service for children to end

BURBANK, Calif. - Walt Disney Co. will end its Disney-branded cell-phone service at the end of the year, 18 months after first offering the plan to customers.

Disney could seek a partnership with a wireless carrier to provide mobile-phone service, the company said Thursday.

The Family Center plan was marketed to parents as a means of better controlling children's cell-phone use. The company shuttered a money-losing ESPN-branded mobile service for sports fans in December. Content from ESPN is now offered through a partnership with Verizon Communications Inc.'s wireless unit.

"They learned their lesson with ESPN," said David Bank, an RBC Capital Markets analyst in New York. "I don't think they made the same level of investment or had the same expectations as they did with ESPN."

The Disney-branded service, started in June 2006, has a GPS feature parents can use to locate children and is carried on Sprint Nextel Corp.'s network. Disney said it will reimburse some customers.

SOURCE.

Minnesota sues Sprint Nextel in dispute over customer contracts

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson has filed a lawsuit against Sprint Nextel Corp., accusing the cell phone company of extending customer contracts without consent.

The suit alleges that Reston-based Sprint Nextel violated Minnesota's consumer protection laws by extending consumers' wireless-phone contracts for up to two years without giving adequate disclosure.

In a press release, Swanson's office said it was responding to complaints the state had received.

When customers made small changes -- like adding extra minutes, replacing a phone, responding to solicitations for additional services or receiving courtesy discounts -- they were given unwanted contract extensions. Some consumers were threatened with early termination fees of up to $200 when they tried to cancel the wireless service.

"In a normal transaction, you have two parties coming together and making an agreement about a purchase," Swanson said in a statement. "For these consumers, there was no real meeting of the minds. Rather, the company has tricked consumers into unknowingly extending their contract simply because they made a basic change to their plan."

Swanson is seeking restitution for victims and civil penalties of up to $25,000 per incident.

A Sprint spokesman could not be reached for comment.

SOURCE.

Palm introduces the Centro, a smaller, low-cost smart phone

Palm Inc. has introduced the Centro, its first low-cost, consumer-oriented smart phone, a product the company hopes will help it tap into the growing demand for more powerful multimedia handsets.

Palm chief executive Ed Colligan, speaking at the DigitalLife conference in New York on Thursday, said that by putting advanced smart phone capabilities into a standard-size cell phone, Palm hopes to appeal to mainstream phone users who are ready to upgrade to a more versatile device.

The Centro, he said, "is meant to be the center of your life, both your business and personal life. We're trying to reach a new demographic."

The phone will sell for $99.99 and has a compact design, considerably smaller than Palm's Treo devices, which have remained largely unchanged for several years. The Centro offers instant messaging, personal and corporate e-mail support, media player, touch screen, QWERTY keyboard and high-speed 3G data access.

The phone, which runs on a Palm operating system, will be available in mid-October exclusively with a two-year service agreement from Sprint-Nextel. It comes in black and red, and will feature Sprint's live TV service as well as easy access to Web sites such as YouTube, Yelp and Google Maps.

Danny Bowman, Sprint's vice president of customer equipment, said the Centro combines a wealth of features at a low price, which should make it popular for the holiday season.

The heat has been on Palm to keep up with competitors like Research In Motion, Nokia, Motorola and, more recently, Apple with its iPhone. Critics have wondered when Palm was going to refresh its lineup of phones, which have sold solidly to business users but haven't kept up with the growth in the overall smart phone market.

The growing competition has not been kind to Palm. The company's profit slid 43 percent to $15.4 million in its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended June 1.

But Colligan said the future is bright for Palm as it competes in a fast-growing market. Market research firm IDC is projecting that U.S. smart phone shipments will grow from 13.8 million in 2007 to 74.4 million in 2011.

Analysts aren't sure that the Centro alone will turn Palm's fortunes around. But the device is a good start, said Tavis McCourt, an analyst with Morgan, Keegan & Co.

"This is the direction Palm needs to go in," he said. "It may not be as successful as the BlackBerry Pearl, but it's nice incremental growth for Palm. It certainly answers some of the critics. They're saying they get it, that customers want things smaller - thinner phones with more multimedia features."

Miro Kazakoff, an analyst with Compete Inc., said the Centro will help Palm stay in the burgeoning smart phone game. He said his research has found that now 20 percent of consumers say they are at least casually considering buying a smart phone for their next cell phone purchase, up from 5 percent at the beginning of last year.

"We used to call these 'enterprise devices,' but now we're seeing general consumers shop for them," Kazakoff said. "Now, all the smart-phonemakers need to make devices that are oriented toward consumers."

News of the Centro sent Palm stock up 6.3 percent, or 97 cents, to close at $16.40 per share.

BT looking to buy Sprint?

Reuters is reporting that British Telecom, the largest telecommunications company in Britain, is rumored to be interested in purchasing American cellular provider, Sprint. Sprint is the 3rd largest wireless carrier in the United States, and is certainly slipping. However, these “hushed” talks have brought Sprint a 3.5 percent stock increase this Friday alone. Each Sprint stock is now worth $18.65.

Sprint is definitely behind the times, in my opinion. Since its acquisition of Nextel a few years back, the company hasn’t procured any “cool” phones. Hip phones are a must for teenagers, the biggest users of cell phones in the USA by far. While AT&T has the iPhone, Verizon the LG Chocolate, and T-Mobile the Sidekick, you will be hard pressed to find a must-have phone that is available exclusively on the Sprint network. On the flip side, Sprint (utilizing a CDMA, rather than GSM network) has arguably the fastest data speeds of any American carrier. Again, this amounts to nothing if users don’t flock to the provider.

In any case, while selling out to a foreign corp. may solve short term problems, it won’t really help Sprint innovate and succeed.

Read [Reuters]

Palm Unveils $99 Smart Phone

(financialwire.net via COMTEX) -- RIMM | charts | news | PowerRating -- October 1, 2007 (FinancialWire) Palm (NASDAQ: PALM | charts | news | PowerRating) has unveiled a low cost smart phone designed to appeal to a broader range of customers.

The Palm Centro is designed to be comparable to Research in Motion's (NASDAQ: RIMM | charts | news | PowerRating) Blackberry Pearl, but is lower priced than other devices currently on the market. The Centro features a full keyboard for typing text message or email, and a touch screen similar to one found on Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL | charts | news | PowerRating) iPhone.

According to Palm CEO Ed Collgan smart phone consumers currently account for around 5% of all cell phone users, and many potential customers are turned off by the high price of the devices.

The Centro will launch in October and Sprint Nextel will be the exclusive carrier of the device for the first few months.

Shares of Palm, which has struggled recently against competition from other smart phone makers, rose 5% on the news Friday.

Disney Ends Cell Phone Service for Kids

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Walt Disney Co. will pull the plug on its branded cell phone service by the end of the year, the company said Thursday.

Disney said customers liked the product that allowed parents to determine the location of a child carrying a phone, but that it was having problems getting the phone into large retailers.

"We decided that changing strategies was a better alternative to pursue profitable growth in the mobile services area," Steve Wadsworth, president of the Walt Disney Internet Group, said in a statement.

The company will end sales immediately and continue to service the handsets until the end of the year.

Disney is talking to major cell phone carriers about offering some of its most popular services, such as tracking the location of phone users.

Disney subscribers bought special handsets for their children and the service provided Disney ring tones, video and other branded content. The service used Sprint Nextel Corp.'s network.

The phones were equipped to display the location of a user's handset on a map, limit when and how the phone was used and set limits on expenditures.

The company said it became clear it would have to invest far more in the product to boost sales than could be justified.

Exclusive deals cut between large retailers and mobile carriers made it too hard for Disney to get its product in front of customers, the company said.

"It became obvious that the cost of continuing became greater than we wanted to bear," Disney spokesman John Spelich said.

The company would not say how many subscribers it had or whether there would be a write-off associated with ending the stand-alone operation.

About 120 people could lose their jobs, although Disney is working to place them elsewhere in the company.

It's the second failure Disney has had in the highly competitive mobile phone industry. Disney dropped its ESPN-branded cell phone service last year after it did not prove profitable. The company shifted the content developed for the service to Verizon Wireless.

SOURCE.

Town Hall to remove pay phones

The pay phone's days are numbered, at least in Town Hall and at police headquarters. For years back in the pre-cellular telephone era, there have been three pay phones in the Town Hall/Belden Cromwell Public Library complex, and one at police headquarters.

Town officials had been paying $47 a month for each phone. But now, the phone company is raising its rates - substantially. And that's the hang-up. First Selectman Paul C. Beaulieu said officials have been notified that "AT&T is getting out of the pay phone business."

"I guess they have pretty much been supplanted by those cell phones that everyone seems to have now," he said. To smooth its exit from the pay-phone business, Beaulieu said, AT&T suggested the town contact another carrier: Pacific Telemanagement Services or PTS, "which has expressed interest in providing pay phone service at your location(s)."

If that's so, Beaulieu said, they had a funny way of showing it. PTS announced that it was increasing the amount the town has to pay for pay-phone service from $47 to $75 a month per phone. That, town officials said, was simply too much to pay for too little business. There is a phone in the atrium of town hall, one in the adjacent Town Hall gymnasium, and one in the library, Beaulieu said.

"I think in public buildings, there needs to be one," Beaulieu said - but only one, especially at the new price. "I think one would suffice," Deputy First Selectman Stanley Stachura agreed. Police Chief Anthony J. Salvatore said he made contact with phone company officials immediately after the change in service and price hike were announced. He determined that, on average, there is one call a week made from the phone in the police station lobby. "That phone will be coming out," Salvatore announced.

He encouraged Beaulieu to make a similar check of the call volume at Town Hall, as well. "My guess is you probably have one call every two weeks," he said. But, Beaulieu said, he believes there should be at least one pay phone in Town Hall. The fact the phone at police headquarters will be coming out raised concerns for Selectman Richard R. Newton. "If I was to get arrested and had to make my one phone call, what would happen now?" Newton asked. Salvatore sought to reassure him, explaining that for safety reasons, "We do not let them (arrestees) use the phone in the lobby." Instead, the chief said, people who are arrested "use a phone in the booking area."

Reassured, Newton agreed with Beaulieu. "I think in a public building, we should have one," Newton said. "Not everyone has one of those (cell) phones." "So, yes, one (pay phone) in a public building is a good idea," Newton said.