Recently in Cell Phones Category

I've put my Samsung i760 on eBay for those that might be interested. I ended up getting a Blackberry Pearl simply because of the amount of time that I spend on the phone for work in addition to the email services. In theory the Samsung is a pretty good phone but if you are on it 5+ hours a day as I am then it becomes unwieldy because of it's size, it tends to overheat and lock up, and memory usage causes it to be sluggish after continued use.

If I weren't on the darned thing so much I am sure I would have liked it better but as it is I really started to hate the thing.. You can find it on eBay here until March 11th and right now it's up for about $250 which is a steal.

TIME Magazine has released their 50 top 10 lists of 2007 and topping the list of top ten gadgets is, of course, the iPhone. I have heard nothing but good things about the iPhone and the only complaint I have heard at all comes from Windows users like myself that wish it had a slider QWERTY keyboard. I got the wife an iPod Touch for Christmas (she doesn't read this site luckily) and I will play with it for a while prior to making the desicion to getting an iPhone.

The rest of the list for 2007 includes:

• The Nikon Coolpix S51c
• Netgear's SPH200W WiFi Skype Phone
• Palm Centro
• Sony Handycam HDR-CX7 - I have an older model handycam and I have always been impressed with Sony's cameras. I have really been considering replacing the one I have with something much smaller that I can actually use with one hand.
• Samsung P2
• Toshiba Portege R500-S5004 Laptop
• Flytech Dragonfly - I purchased this way back in the early summer on a trip to Wal-Mart, most likely before it got popular as I got a great price on it. The lightweight remote controlled dragonfly is extremely cool.
• Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive
• Belkin N1 Vision WiFi Router

I am definately a gadget junkie and since I only have two of the items on the list I may have to check out the rest and report back on how well they work.

I have now had the Samsung i760 for around a month or so. I am very mixed in my opinions on the phone. I like the side slider and the QWERTY keyboard quite a lot but there are some other issues, software as well as design issues that make me think that I will be upgrading to a Helio or an iPhone before summer gets here.

First off is the design of the buttons on the front face of the i760. They just suck. I hold the phone with my right hand and the placement of the end key is such that I have to be very careful or I hang up on whoever I am talking to. The buttons themselves are not very intuitive, for lack of a better word. I don't really know how to explain it other than that. Except for my wife's Motorola V3M I can normally pick up a cell phone and dial without looking at the keypad. Not so with the Razr OR with my Samsung i760. The software tends to be laggy after a bit of use, and there are some other issues but nothing major. One of the things I didn't like with the accessories was the lack of a decent case for it. I ended up getting a generic case from Wal-Mart that I have been using until today that was OK but nothing great.

I came across the Designio Samsung i760 leather case late last week and decided to order it. Since Boxwave had it on sale for $29.95 and I had not been able to find anything locally I figured it was a good deal.

From the Boxwave Website:

Hand-crafted from fine, premium grade leather, BoxWave's Designio Leather Case is a slim and soft leather case that is custom fitted for your Samsung i760.  This durable leather case protects and neatly stores your device everyday, while giving your device a timeless, classic look.
The Samsung i760 Designio Leather Case has a padded front cover and accessible interior that are made from soft leather, creating the perfect union of versatility and sophistication.  An utterly refined accessory for Samsung i760 users on the move.

 

Designio Leather Case Features:

• Form-fitting case designed to perfectly fit your Samsung i760
• Hand crafted from fine premium grade leather
• Leather has soft and smooth texture, yet is durable
• Designed with one built-in SD card holder
• Secure magnetic snap closure
• Quick access to screen and keyboard makes this case easy and convenient to use.

So what's my take on the case?

It's OK, but nothing to write home about.

I like the design of the case itself but I do have some issues with it. Number 1 on the list is the fact that there is no strap, clasp or belt hook. WTF am I supposed to do with it while I am working, stick it down my pants? The purpose if the case is to keep it from harm but if I am going to have to jam it in my pocket everywhere I go then that very quickly does away with the 'easy and convenient' factor. If they can eventually come up with a case that I can stick on the outside of my pocket or on my belt I will be switching in a heartbeat.

Number 2 is the fact that it is so form-fitting the SD card holder and credit card slots are virtually useless. If I were to try and stick anything in the slots right now they would scratch the hell out of the screen or break the cards, and the magnetic snap closure certainly wouldn't reach.

If you look at the picture to the right you can sort of see what I am talking about. The slots for cards sit right over the screen, and at least right now while the case is so new and tight I can't put anything in it. Not only that but if I don't make sure to turn the phone off prior to closing it, the case bearing down on the buttons makes it dial. That will abate somewhat as the leather stretches and I may even be able to put an SD card in the slot, which brings me to another question about the design. The i760 takes a microSD card, so why put place for an SD? I guess if I wanted to carry the adapter around that would be useful but part of the reason I got this phone was so that I would have PDA capabilities and access to my email which means no laptop and therefore no SD card reader anyway.

Over all I give the case a five out of ten, if it had a belt clip that would certainly move to an eight. If you always have big pockets available or carry a purse then this will be the perfect case for your new phone.

There are other ways to do this, but PDANet seems to be the easiest for me right now. I came across PDANet last week when I was looking at some of the cool apps for my Windows Mobile Phone. Basically it lets you use your Bluetooth wireless connection and a cell phone to connect to the Internet. It's very nice with my EV-DO connection through Verizon because it means that the next time Charter goes down I can still connect to the net with my Bluetooth adapter that I am syncing the phone with in the first place.

I am still toying with the idea of an iPhone eventually, even with the purchase of my new Samsung that I love so much. Most likely someone I know will get an iTouch this year for Christmas that I can play with and if I like IT a lot I may consider switching to AT&T and getting an iPhone.

 

After having searched for a way to get Opera Mini working on my new phone, I finally found a java environment that would work, browsed to operamini.com and was able to download and install it in a snap. This is one sweet browser. Check out the pics.

 

That's just in regular mode. You can see how it will highlight the areas of the screen. You can drag and resize portions of the screen so that they are legible, and it displays just the way that it should. I really haven't had much time to play around with it yet, but thus far it kicks Pocket IE's ass. Loading time on the page isn't bad either. The full page shown actually loaded faster in Opera Mini than it did in IE with just the text version of my page.

 

 

 

This is the area of the screen highlighted above. As you can see, it is pretty legible. You can also increase the font size and legibility as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just the resized photo from my sidebar.

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, I know it's not the Motorola Q9 that I purchased a few weeks ago. My son had his cell phone stolen on base last week, so I put a lock on his account and reported it stolen. He wanted an upgrade anyway, to the exact phone I had been using, and I really wanted to get the i760 or the XV6800 when they came out, so I got this one and sold him my Q at a decent deal. I really wanted to try an iPhone prior to getting it but even with playing with one I wasn't sure what kind of cell reception I would get with AT&T out here.

The Samsung i760 is a really neat phone. About the only whine I have is the fact that Verizon doesn't allow for Java apps on it's phones, so I had to find a decent midlet manager in order to run them. I found one over at the XDA developers forum that I could use.

I am going to try and post a review of the phone itself tomorrow, as well as the Verizon Motorola Q9m that I just shipped to my son a couple of days ago.

Now for a nice small GPS unit...

 

"Microsoft is cutting the price of its Windows Mobile phone line next month at prices below $100 The software giant has faced increasing competition from Blackberry and the Apple iPhone. AT&T is already offering Windows Mobile phone model 3125 for $49.99. Another model will go on sale for less than $100 but the company declined to name the model and what company will be selling the device."

Pretty nice drop in price but the thing is that the 3125 runs WM5, which is the previous version. I am sure that the un-named model is nothing too terribly new either. Honestly I think it's more of an issue of marketing and ease of use than it is price. I would be interested in seeing what the percentage of iPhone users vs. Windows Mobile there are.

On a side note, sorry about the lack of updates over the last couple of weeks. I ended up putting in 75+ hours this week at my real job and it left very little time for anything else but sleep.

I will be moving this site back to a different server at some point soon, perhaps tomorrow. There shouldn't be more than a few minutes of downtime.

Here I was all set to try out the latest beta of Opera Mini when I read the blurb "this app not supported on Verizon". I hate Brew enabled phones. Sooner or later Verizon is going to have to join the real world and let us install what we want on our phones.

Now I am looking for a hack for Verizon's Brew enabled phones, specifically the Motorola Q 9m

I was over at Engadget and came across this article  about how Verizon Wireless will soon be allowing it's customers to change plans without extending their contract. That's great news for me as I am a Verizon subscriber and I have had to change my plan several times over the last six years and each time I do it gets extended by two years.

I am still looking for a new phone though and if something kickass comes my way between now and October 29th I will jump on it. That's providing of course that one of the cell providers actually lets me play with the darn thing first instead of expecting me to choose blindly.

My contract will be up on my cell phone before the end of the year, and I actually qualify for the "New Every Two" discount that Verizon has, on October 29th. This time I am going to splurge and use some of my "internet" money to get a really cool phone. I want one that has a nice interface that I can check email with, take pictures, and surf the internet but I also need to be able to sync with my PC preferably with Outlook.

I have been considering several phones, the Helio Ocean, maybe a Crackberry, Verizons XV6800 (I think that's the new model) or perhaps the iPhone. Here's my problem though. Cell phone stores basically refuse to let you test drive a damn phone. I have been in countless stores over the last few weeks and although I can physically look at the hardware (in most cases) I can't actually DO ANYTHING WITH IT. I need to see what he web browsing interface is like. Will I be able to log into Movabletype and Wordpress from my phone and actually type entries? Who knows since nobody will let me play with a darned working phone.

I get the same thing at all of the stores. Verizon points to their display models which have no batteries in them and are chained to the damn wall but when asked if you can see one and access the Internet they act like I am stupid. I get pretty much the same results from every other cell provider I have spoken to. I hesitate to get the iPhone because there is no keyboard (a must) and haven't been to an AT&T store yet because I don't know where the closest one is to me.

They sell the Helio Ocean at Gamespot in the local mall to me (somewhat local at 25 miles away) so I asked the counter girls about it and then explained that I needed to see a working one so that I could check out the web browser. She pulls one out of the drawer but when I try and turn it on she says, "Oh that one doesn't work." WTF part of what I explained did you not understand?

Radio shack is the same way and although the sell AT&T equipment resellers won't start getting the iPhone until sometime next year. The saleswoman there acted like I was stupid anyway. I guess these people just don't care because they know for example that I am locked into Verizon's plan and if I don't find something better my contract will just renew itself and I will keep on paying. Doesn't mean I have to be satisfied though.