Phones

iPhone e-mail starting to annoy me

My biggest concern was the keyboard. Having used the Prada phone, I expected the worst. Surprisingly, the iPhone keyboard starts to feel comfortable fairly quickly. Within a few days, I went from typing two out of every three letters incorrectly down to just one in five wrong. That gives hope.

E-mail, though, is another story, making me long for my BlackBerry. Sure, Yahoo allegedly provides the same RIM-type push mail. But it's simply not as quick or easy to knock out a sentence or two on the iPhone.

More annoyingly, it appears there is no way to delete all … Read more

I saw the iPhone and decided to wait--about 5 minutes

By the time it came out, I was ready to resist. A two-week vacation in Europe helped--Rome isn't exactly packed with Apple outlets.

I read every review, talked to every friend who had one, weighed the pros and cons. And for once, logic prevailed. Wait for the next one, I said. It'll have most of the bugs fixed.

Then I played with one.

If you're in the same "should I or shouldn't I" dilemma, avoid AT&T or Apple stores because once you see and feel the iPhone, you'll be sorely tempted.… Read more

HTC Kaiser clears FCC, bound for AT&T?

Huzzah, all hail the HTC Kaiser! The latest Windows Mobile 6 smart phone from HTC has been given the thumbs-up by the FCC, clearing the way for a U.S. release. According to the FCC filings, it appears there are, in fact, three models: the HTC KAIS100 with a 3-megapixel camera; the KAIS110 with no camera; and the KAIS120 with a 3-megapixel camera on back and VGA lens on front. All three run on the GSM/HSDPA network and have integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. The smart phone also features a slider design, full QWERTY keyboard, and pivoting screen. There'… Read more

Texting costs Polish bus driver his job

A city bus driver in Poland has been fired for sending $34,000 in text messages from his company cell phone.

Leszek Wojcik ran up the bill by by sending more than 38,000 SMS messages, about 1,200 a day, in an effort to win a contest, according to a report by the Associated Press.

The Slupsk city bus driver told a local radio station that he hoped to win the contest so he could buy a second car.

The cell phone was only supposed to have a $5 limit, a spokesman for the Slupsk city transportation agency told … Read more

TypePad Mobile: Moblogging, mo' often

Inspiration for a blog can come from anywhere--at any time--so you'd best be prepared. Lighter than your Wi-Fi-enabled laptop and more immediate than jotting journal notes is TypePad Mobile (for Symbian, Palm, and Windows Mobile,) a blog-updating app offered by TypePad for its paid subscribers.

I evaluated TypePad Mobile on a gleaming HTC Vox S710 (watch Bonnie Cha's video review) running Windows Mobile 6. The smart phone's nice slider QWERTY keyboard and motion-sensitive vertical-to-horizontal display made for favorable testing conditions.… Read more

Cell phones make you ill? It's in your head

If you feel ill from being around cell phones, power lines or microwaves, chances are it's all in your head, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Essex.

The study, detailed in an article from New Scientist, shows that those suffering from what's known as electrical sensitivity, or electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS), are not able to detect electromagnetic radiation at all, as some people believe.

Those who suffer from EHS say they experience illnesses, such as headaches and fatigue, or an allergic reaction when they are near electrical equipment such as microwaves or mobile phone … Read more

Samsung SGH-P260 potentially in fall lineup

We've heard that Samsung has come up with yet another slider, dubbed the Samsung SGH-P260. It looks a little like the Samsung SGH-D807, but what sets it apart is that it is a UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) phone with built-in Wi-Fi. This feature lets it make calls via Wi-Fi, and the phone can also switch between wireless hot spots and GSM cellular airwaves automatically. Other features include a 262,000 color display, a 2-megapixel camera, 256MB of internal memory, a microSD card slot, an MP3 player, stereo Bluetooth, and more. No word on carrier, but since it is a … Read more

The Ocean gets Exchange Activesync

When we first reviewed the Helio Ocean a couple months ago, we thought the killer application would be its support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, which was unfortunately unavailable at the time. The Exchange integration would work well to bridge the gap between the young hipster types that are Helio's core audience and mobile professionals. Well, today's the day, because that Exchange application is now here. As was reported by Engadget, the Ocean is finally getting the Exchange ActiveSync support, including an improved version of Helio's file viewer that supports Microsoft Office documents. It's not free, though: … Read more

XtremeMac iPhone car charger

I got my hands on XtremeMac's latest in-car iPhone power adapter, the InCharge Auto. As luck would have it, CNET car tech writer Kevin Massy loaned me his trusty desktop car lighter power supply to see if the adapter was worth its salt.

The result? It works! In fact, the adapter's standard USB connection will likely work on other USB-chargeable products as well.

For just $20, this seems like a good solution for charging you iPhone between destinations.

Fielding calls without a ring or vibration

There aren't many, but one of the downsides of the digital revolution is noise pollution. The proliferation of gadgetry in our society has given rise to a constant cacophony of beeps, rings, buzzes and Beyonce ringtones. On any given day, the sound of our own phones is enough to push us over the brink, which is why we usually keep them on vibrate. But even a vibrating phone can sound like a buzz saw when it's bouncing around on a wooden desktop.

Here's one possible solution that could work equally well in a deafening office where a … Read more