Phones

A 19-year-old freshman from St. John's College, my alma mater, has started an international affairs magazine. And he uses Skype to conduct actual interviews with people around the globe and produce radio programs. Back when I was in college, just having a blog was considered cutting edge.

Gizmo 3.0 si presenta in antitesi a Skype. La nuova versione 3.0 permette di chiamare a costo nullo gli utenti Windows Live e Yahoo Messenger in aggiunta ai già compresi utenti Google Talk. Il numero degli utenti raggiungibili è ora molto ampio

Environmental group offers free endangered wildlife ringtones. The ringtones include Frogs, wolves, whales and birds. The activists hope to connect with tech-savvy generation. By 2008, as many as 30 percent of wireless users are likely to give up their land lines and nearly all cell phones will have Internet capabilities. The idea for the free ringtones of endangered and rare species is a way to educate people, especially the younger, technologically savvy generation.

I have been using my T-Mobile Dash for the last couple of months and really do enjoy using the device, but before I was using the Dash the Nokia E61 replaced my Treo 650. After discovering that some new VoIP applications worked on the E61, there was a new QuickOffice Suite for the S60 platform, and my Twitter usage has increased I decided to give my E61 another shot. I actually put the cool purple Nokia N95 theme on it too and love the looks of it.

In comparison, the Palm Treo 750, which costs $100 less than the suggested low end of the iPhone, offers the same WiFi and bluetooth capabilities as the iPhone, yet also offers compatibility with 3rd-party apps and Windows apps that allow you to open the most common form of email attachments (docs and spreadsheets), AND offers both UMTS and GPRS-EDGE data network compatibility on the same AT&T network. It also utilizes common flash memory (SD cards) that can be removed, replaced or upgraded. On the other hand, the Treo 750 doesn’t offer a built-in iPod.

Sometimes you’ll even see crazy deals on the contracts with their clearance phones, for example Three did this with a lot of its older LG phones, which meant you get (for the period) great deals just by taking an older handset, and remember an older handsets in 2007 will have all the features you need, as most phone now come with bluetooth, mp3, photo as standard and are mostly set apart by design and extra smaller technology innovations.

With the announcement of the Sumsung ‘Ultra Smart F700’ , it looks as though Apple’s iPhone will have a run for it’s money!

As a Mac user, I long ago became addicted to Adium, an all in one IM client that allows me to combine AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and Googletalk into one application. No integration with skype and VoIP yet, but hopefully one day.

But for consumers? That will be interesting. Although we’ve heard howls of protest at the iPhone’s $499 and $599 price points, consider this… The Cingular 8525 and Palm Treo 750 (both touch screen Windows Mobile 5 devices) cost $399.99 (after subsidizing is figured in). That is not much less than the lower-end iPhone. And, neither one has 4GB of storage like the low-end iPhone.

Buying an unlocked smartphone also gives you access to some very nice devices, such as the powerful Nokia N80 and the colorful Palm Treo 680. The i-mate JAQ attempts to distinguish itself in this increasingly crowded field of consumer-oriented, unlocked smart devices—and completely fails.

I don't really care for the Palm Treo PDAs, as they seem to be too much of a compromise on both a cell phone and a Palm, so I haven't tried the keyboard on one. My love of gadgets drew me to the Sharp SL-5000, having seen one that a friend had. Well, I got tempted by eBay again, and bought an SL-5000 to play with. It really is a Linux PDA, complete with text boot messages and X-Windows. And the button panel slides down to reveal a thumb keyboard. Now I don't see this replacing my Palm T3 anytime soon, but it is fun playing with Linux on the go.

This class used the blog to pose questions to two businessmen in different parts of the world. They were examining globalization and how it affects the workplace. Students posted their ideas of what questions should be asked. The teacher put them together and came up with a list of questions they would ask in a Skype interview with the businessmen. The teacher then asked the students to formulate a thesis statement for their paper on globalization and post it.

If these exaggerated claims hold even an iota of truth, then it would hardly be surprising that the industry’s big guns want in on the action. But until we get some sort of iPhone whipping bombshell from Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft, this Nintendo patent will remain little more than fuel to keep the fanboy guess machine ticking over. Check out the full set of pictures after the jump.

Wirefly is the #1 seller of cell phones and plans in the US. They recently announced their Ten Most Popular Cell Phones of 2006. I've provided the list below and, as usual, the ProductCritic scores associated with each phone.

This, however, changes the rules. With a 2.4-inch swivelling screen, the N93 shoots at VGA resolution, with impressive results. It’s even got a 3x optical zoom and shake-quashing digital image stabilisation.

On the Voice over IP front, Comcast said it had signed up 1.5 million digital voice subscribers in 2006, giving them 1.9 million total, a user number roughly equal to that of independent VoIP provider Vonage. But just comparing Comcast to Vonage really doesn’t make sense, since Comcast’s reach and market opportunity (with video and broadband services) eclipses Vonage’s POTS replacement biz.