Verizon XV6800 PPC News

The HTC XV6800 available through Verizon has been pulled from stores. I asked a Verizon Wireless employee and was told the XV6800 is available only through Verizon's website for $349.99 with a two-year contract.

There are those that love this phone, and others that feel Verizon really dropped the ball on this one. No matter. Verizon Wireless can make it up to its loyal CDMA members by making good on the Blackberry Storm, and the next generation of WinMo devices coming in Q4 2008.

Verizon Blackberry News

Verizon Wireless is having a promotion sale of its entire Blackberry line. It got me thinking. Is it trying to rid itself of its Blackberry Worldphones and Curves in its inventory before the new Blackberries arrive?

If you are a Verizon Wireless customer and always wanted to get a Blackberry, I'd wait a month for the new Blackberries. If you absolutely can't wait, then I'd recommend the Blackberry Curve 8330.

Jott.com

Jott.com is a speech recognition app that allows voice to text dictation on your phone. You dial 866-JOTT-123, and tell Jott where and to whom you want a message to go to, and it transcribes your voice to text and forwards the SMS or email to your recipient. You can also send a reminder text to yourself.

Basic Jott service is free, and worth checking out if you own an iPhone or Blackberry. Point your desktop or mobile browser to www.jott.com.

October 2nd?

Blackberry users of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your old Curves and Worldphones.

AT&T to release the Blackberry Bold on October 2nd. (from BoyGeniusReport.com)

Android Developer Challenge

CrazyPhoneGuy salutes the winners of the Android Developer Challenge.

To encourage developers to write for Android, Google sponsored a challenge awarding $10,000,000 of prize money for original apps written using Android.

A winner of $275,000 wrote Cab4me. Utilizing GPS, Google-maps, and your contact list, this program allows you to call a cab to any location worldwide. http://cab4me.com/

Another winner of $275,000 wrote Compare Everywhere. Using the camera on your phone, you scan a barcode to gain immediately access to reviews of the product on your phone. It also integrates with GPS to find stores nearby that carry the product. http://compare-everywhere.com/

I commend Google for their innovation, and its new open source mobile programming platform. It looks promising, and may give Windows Mobile a run for its money if it catches on.

Blackberry TouchScreen Phone

I don't know how BoyGeniusReport.com does it, but this is a leaked picture of the packaging for the new Blackberry Touchscreen iPhone challenger.

(pictures from cellfanatic and engadget)

Bose Pairing

I use these headphones with my Verizon Blackberry Curve (8330) and Zune 80, and they sound great. I bought the headphones at the Apple store on 5th avenue for $139.

Sociology 101

WHAT does your mobile device say about you?

Living in New York City I walk past thousands of strangers on a daily basis. Every morning on the subway I notice more and more people hunched over their mobile devices texting, and reading emails.

I was at a screening of The Dark Knight at the Regal theater on Broadway and Union Square near NYU. All around me were students and young people. I started to wonder if I could infer something about these people on line. Could I guess their occupations based on the phone they carried? Was I Henry Higgins?

The young, cool, and hip buy the iPhone. Clean cut looking college grads,with plum corporate jobs, carry Blackberries. Savvy publicists carried LG EnVs, and Voyagers. The upwardly mobile wear on their their belts, Palm Treos and other WinMo devices. The younger urban set favor the T-Mobile sidekick.

I have been surprised. Once, a disheveled man sat down next to me. I did not pay attention to him until he took out a Nokia N-95 phone. My jaw almost dropped; I mean the Nokia N-95 sells unlocked in the US for almost $650. You can make assumptions, but sometimes you can't judge a book by its cover.

The way we dress, the car we drive, the people we hang around with all make a statement about who we are. With the great variety of cellphones on the market, it is possible to choose something that represents you.

What does your mobile device say about you?

Palm's Comeback

Palm has its enthusiasts and supporters; however, it has not kept up with the times, and most recently has been left in the dust by new innovative smartphones from cellphone manufacturers such as LG, Samsung, Motorola, RIM, And Apple. The closing of seven out of eight retail stores and 26 Palm airport stores also did not bode well for Palm.

In January of this year, Palm hired Apple alum Mike Bell to head up product development and to breathe new life into Palm's product line. Palm's newest smartphones seem to be the beneficiaries of Bell's efforts, and look great. The Palm Centro came out on the Verizon network on June 13th, and has been well received. Similarly, the release on the Sprint network of the Treo 800w gave Sprint a shot in the arm, and many stores were reporting sold out inventories. But, the latest offering from Palm that has many a hearts fluttering is the Palm Treo Pro. It is suppose to come out in the fall (unlocked!) with AT&T potentially picking it up.

Zune - not so social?

I tried to send this picture to a total stranger over the weekend.

I own a Zune 80, and have the ability to share songs and pictures with other Zune users. Zune owners are part of the "Zune Social". Zune devices are all equipped with WiFi, which allows "squirting".

Why would Microsoft create such an unfortunate term for something as cool as sharing music or pictures wirelessly? How about "Zune-ing"? or "Zapping?" Squirting, Ugh.

I was on the subway. It was late, and there were about thirty riders on the train. I just finished listening to a podcast, and just for fun, I turned on the wireless; I usually keep it turned off because it is a battery drainer. Two names popped up when I went to the "Social". I don't know why, but I felt daring. I decided to try the "Social" feature on my Zune 80.

Here is what I did - I opened the picture above, and clicked "send". Oh, by the way, we actually have to name our Zunes as part of the registration process; mine's Zeke. The other Zune would get the message "Zeke wants to send you a picture - accept?" If he or she clicks okay, then our Zunes connect, and content is shared wirelessly. The whole process takes about 15 seconds.

My "Squirting" attempt was was unsuccessful; I was actually relieved. Remember, I live in New York City, and most of the time, people mind their own business. To have a total stranger try and "squirt" you a song or picture could be seen as an invasion of personal space!

Maybe among high school students and friends being "Social" works; sharing with a total stranger in a large US city is an entirely different proposition.

I'm not sure what Microsoft had in mind when they came up with the Zune Social - all people united in harmony via their Zunes? I don't think I'm ever "squirting" again.

First Smartphone..first love

They say you never forget your first smartphone. Mine was the Samsung SCH-i760.

I absolutely adored this phone. I got it from Verizon Wireless, and was taken in by the design of this phone, right from the beginning. I loved the look, feel and heft of the phone. Some of my friends would make fun of it, but I didn't care. If the iPhone is the cool rich kid, then this phone is the nerdy kid, who plays chess and helps out on the AV squad.

The SCH i760 is not all looks. It packs a zippy 400Mhz processor that makes it an overachieving smartphone. Being a Windows Mobile device, the SCH i760 is customizable. I had Spb Mobile Shell installed, which improved the UI on the phone, and made the phone a better touch-screen device. I hardly used the stylus. The voice command feature was just amazing. I would press a key on the side, and say "play music", and the phone would ask "which album?". I would say "Saturday Night Fever" and "Stayin Alive" would start playing.

The full qwerty keyboard was the best. I loved the feel of the keyboard. I was able to type long emails on the bus or train easily. It did take a few days to get used to typing certain symbols like the ampersand (you have to press a function key). Overall it was a great keyboard, and I miss it. The Samsung SCH-i760 comes with Windows Mobile Office (Word, Excel and Powerpoint), and is useful for anyone who has to compose articles, letters, memos, etc. while on the move. The white backlight was brilliant and made it possible for me to compose emails even in the dark.

The Samsung SCH-i760 isn't "perfect". The synching cable provided doesn't charge the phone. That was annoying. Being a Windows Mobile device, there was a learning curve, especially for a newbie like me. To make the phone really shine, you have to tweak, mod, adjust, and give it a lot of customizing love. If you are a gadget hound, then this phone is for you. I would recommend buying a micro-SD card to give the SCH-i760 an extra 2Gs of storage space for your files and music. It didn't come 3.5mm standard for headphones, so if you want to use fancy headphones, you have to get an adapter.

I have a weakness for underdog phones that work well but are not as popular in the marketplace. I have to say this phone really did it for me. It looks great, has awesome functionality, and is an all around useful and fun smartphone. Being the CrazyPhoneGuy, I did have to move on, but this was the first, and it will always occupy a special place in my heart.

Searchme.com

Here's a cool webpage you might not otherwise know about. If you want to bring the cool CoverFlow experience from your iPhone to your desktop - now you can with Searchme.com.

New iPods

From Digg.com, rumors abound about Apple's revamping of its entire iPod line. What we should look for are price drops in Apple's existing iPod line, software updates for the iPod Touch, and a redesigned iPod Nano.

Pocket Commodore 64 for Windows Mobile Phones

If you know what a Commodore 64 is, then this Windows Mobile app is for you. Use it play classic old school games like Electronic Arts Mule and Archon . Point your browser to clickgamer.com.

Microsoft retains Seinfeld

Is Microsoft trying to be cool? Microsoft has hired Jerry Seinfeld, and will pay him an obscene amount of money to hang around, and shoot a few spots. Will I see Jerry Seinfeld with a Zune?

Microsoft is trying to salvage Vista. It is embarassing when customers prefer the older Windows XP to the newer Vista. Is this a last ditch effort to salvage Vista? Anyhow, it will be cool to see Seinfeld come out of retirement to do these print ads and television spots. Now, Microsoft, what about Windows Mobile?

Blackberry Bold Released in Canada

Canadian carrier Rogers announced the release of RIM's new Blackberry Bold yesterday. My question is when is it coming to the States? This is a heavily anticipated phone. The HVGA display will show 480 by 320 pixels (the Curve's resolution is 320 by 240). You will be able to transfer your Itunes music to the new Blackberry Bold. The Bold comes with 1G of storage memory, and has 128 MB of flash memory. Inside is a significantly faster processor chip (624 Mhz) versus the Curve's 312 Mhz Intel processor. Everything should be snappier. If a mobile device is a fashion accessory, this would be the phone to show the world your mover and shaker status!

O Zune, where art thou?

Where the Zunes at?

I actually get ver clempted when I see one. Who would have thought Microsoft would be David to Apple's Goliath in the MP3 space. I almost spoke to a total stranger on the subway, so convinced I was of our kinship, because he carried a Zune! My IT guy owns a brown Zune. "I'm not a conformist!" he exclaimed when I asked him "why Zune?"

What sort of people buy the Zune? Bargain hunters? I've seen artsy rebellious types with a Zune; you know the type: black t-shirt, black rimmed glasses, khakis -looking all indie - BUT, sporting a Zune. I've seen obese civil servant types with Zunes; a few teenagers, but not too many Wall Streets types carrying a Zune, though.

I am not sure why, but the Zune 80 spoke to me. I like the large clear font of the Zune's UI, and the Zune's screen. I was underwhelmed by the iPod Classics's small screen. The Zune 80 has a big screen that stood out to me; first impressions count.

The Zune isn't a perfect product. I bought an alarm clock dock accessory for my Zune, which kind of...sucked. The iPod has the Zune beat in this area. I wish Zune had even a tiny fraction of iPod's accessory goodness.

The Zune Marketplace takes some getting used to. I had to call India to resolve an issue with the Zune Marketplace; I wasn't able to download songs, and had to do some minor XP surgery to fix the problem. The nice man from India walked me through it patiently. I briefly considered putting my Zune for sale on Craigs List.

It's strange, but the Zune found me, and 2 million other Zune owners. We're different, and as Rob Walker concluded in his NY Times article "Antipod", maybe it's Microsoft that's learning to think differently - at least in the MP3 space.

Olympic Blackberry User!

Michael Phelps: Olympic champion; Blackberry user!

Visit Crackberry.com for a picture of Michael Phelps carrying his Blackberry 8800. Gold medalist, and savvy smartphone user!

HSBC Won't Ditch Blackberry

HSBC came out and publicly dismissed rumors about a possible change to the iPhone. It will keep its relationship with RIM, so HSBC's 300,000 employees worldwide will continue to peck away on their Blackberry devices. If the rumors were true, it would have meant the largest corporate order of iPhones for Apple.

Free Wall Street Journal Reader for Blackberry

The Wall Street Journal launched a mobile reader for Blackberry users yesterday. I signed up yesterday, and had the new WSJ app on my Blackberry Curve in under five minutes.

This is a wonderful app for Blackberry users. It pushes WSJ headlines to your Blackberry device like Viigo.com. It also looks slick. I was surprised that I had the options to read full articles if a particular business headline caught my attention. To sign up visit: www.wsj.com/mobilereader.

HTC Diamond coming to Sprint USA?

When is HTC Diamond coming to Sprint? This has been one of the most heavily anticipated phones of 2008 for smartphone aficionados. The Diamond is already available in Asia and Europe, and rumors say that the HTC Diamond is coming to the United States via Sprint at the end of August. I visited a Sprint store recently, and their sales people gave me blank looks when I asked about the HTC Diamond. It is good news for Sprint if it is the US carrier for the HTC Diamond because it needs another homerun like the Samsung Instinct. The HTC Diamond will include Windows Mobile 6.1, a 3.2 mega pixel camera, 4 GB of internal storage, WiFi, GPS, EVDO-Rev A speeds, and a Qualcomm 528 Mhz processor chip. There is talk that Sprint may also offer a red HTC Diamond.

HSBC and the iPhone

The New York Times reported on August 14th that British Bank HSBC may ditch its relationship with Research in Motion (RIM) for the new Apple iPhone. This may mean a 200,000 purchase of new iPhones for HSBC employees. This move could signal to other companies that the Apple I-Phone is ready for the big leagues. Currently companies favor the Blackberry because of the security of its Blackberry Enterprise server (BES). Apple wants to show the corporate world that the iPhone is just as secure as the Blackberry. If Apple succeeds, then Blackberry should watch out as Apple clearly wants to challenge Blackberry’s dominance as the preferred mobile device of choice for business executives.

Is the new iPhone all that?

What is it about the iPhone? Anyone who takes out an iPhone in public is instantly cool. But, is the iPhone all that? Owners of the new iPhone 3G are writing in about cracks appearing, under ordinary use, in the plastic backs. These fissures seem prevalent in the 16G models which have the white backs versus the black backs of the 8G models. It remains to be seen if this is a manufacturing defect, but according to an Apple blog some stores are exchanging units with cracks for new ones after careful inspections. The new features of the iPhone 3G also appears to have a short battery life. Brian Tong from CNet.com gave tips on how to maximize battery life on the iPhone 3G: turn off GPS, WiFi, 3G, and push-email functionality when you aren’t using it; buy your apps from iTunes rather than the wireless apps store. But, I have to ask: Isn't keeping 3G switched on the whole point of the new iPhone 3G?

Celio Redfly

Is the Celio Redfly a glimpse of the future of mobile computing? The Celio Redfly is a companion accessory for select Windows Mobile devices that allow you to hook up your Windows Mobile smartphone to a laptop-like terminal for a larger display, and a full-size keyboard. The Celio Redfly is a small portable lap-top like device which is essentially a dumb terminal powered by the Windows Mobile operating system on your smartphone. Every application on your Windows Mobile smartphone is available for use on a larger higher resolution screen with a full laptop like keyboard, and a touch pad mouse. If you have videos and pictures on your phone, you can display them on the larger display. The resolution will be the same as that of your smartphone which is one of the few flaws of Redfly. There are also no speakers, so you will have to use your headphones for sound.

As Pocket PC phones become stronger and more powerful, is it conceivable that one day we will carry around mobile devices with the full computing power of a desktop? Imagine connecting to any desktop wirelessly from a mobile device and essentially using the desktop to run your smartphone programs!

Time to upgrade?

A colleague of mine carries around a beat up old Palm smartphone. I started dropping hints. The new Sprint phones look PREETTY good. My colleague continued bringing the beat up old phone to work. I stopped being subtle and started emailing him pictures of cellphones. Mr. P, if you are reading this – here is CrazyPhoneGuy’s recommendation for a new phone.

At first I thought you would like the Blackberry Curve. I mean, come on, what’s not to like? You work in business, and Wall street types use Blackberries. However, I’ve noticed how fond you are of your Palm Smartphone. Why break up a great relationship? So, the CrazyPhoneGuy’s recommendation for you is the new PALM TREO 800W from Sprint. It is similar to your old Palm smartphone only faster and better. It comes with WIFI and GPS. You'll be able to walk into any WIFI hotspot (like our office), and enjoy wireless internet access. The Treo 800W also comes with Windows Mobile 6.1 and includes the Mobile Office suite with Microsoft Word, and Excel.

The AT&T Tilt, I presume?

A friend at dinner showed me his AT&T Tilt. It reminded me how much I like this phone. There's is no chance of me ever buying this phone; not with the Bold, IPhone 3G, Diamond, Xperia 1 and the Touch Pro in the pipeline. That's the only downside with mobile technology. Because product life cycles are so short, really cool phones become yesterday's news quickly. Last year, at this time people couldn't get enough of the Tilt. Cnet, Smartphonemag.com, and other bloggers were anonymous in their praise of the Tilt.


I like my Blackberry, but this is the phone that would almost get me to move to a Windows Mobile phone.

Verizon XV 6800

I dream about this phone. Why did Verizon Wireless have to make it blue? Come on Verizon! It feels cheap and clunky and is the ugliest incarnation of a HTC Mogul slider type phone. Yet, for some reason I am drawn to this phone. It is powerful, no doubt about it. It is a classic pocket pc phone and does it all: Windows Mobile 6.0, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, voice command, full qwerty keyboard, Windows professional suite, etc. I really want to like this phone, but agree with most reviewers that I should pass on the XV6800.

I did noticed in the SkyFire launch video that they use the XV6800 to demo their new revolutionary browser. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uohQf8Cam0A

HTC Touch Pro

HTC is promoting the hell out of the Diamond, but this is the phone I want. It is the Diamond with a full qwerty keyboard. It is scheduled to come out sometime in the fall in the United States. Rumor has it T-Mobile will pick it up.

Used CellPhone Exchange

I was very excited to find in Manhattan a store call "Phone Exchange" located on Broadway between Bleecker and Bond street in New York City.

The shop itself is a small space with large glass cases displaying hundreds of used and new cellphones. Here you can buy and sell cellphones, smartphones, PSPs, and even MP3 players. If you've recently upgraded your cellphone and live in New York City, and want to sell your old phone (assuming it's in fair working order), it might be worth a visit.