PhoneTalk

Cell phones that slither

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Friday, December 29, 2006 (permalink)
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Nokia's line of ultra-expensive Vertu cell phones are often objects of cell phone envy with their expensive jewel-embedded designs. So why are we surprised to see a break-out from the classic style? I don't know, maybe it's because these have reptilian appeal.

Texting boundaries

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Thursday, December 28, 2006 (permalink)
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I've heard from guys lately the same question, "What's with all the text messaging?" This mostly comes up when they are discussing females. This is often followed up with, "Seriously, why can't girls call to make or confirm a plan? It's much faster than going back and forth over text messaging."

Although, text messaging and even e-mail has done a lot to advance (and sometimes obscure) communication between men and women there does seem to be a definitive difference in cell phone communication preferences between the two. Our recent survey of teenagers even confirms this:

• Females (54%) prefer text messaging more strongly than males (43%)

So why the difference? I'm not sure exactly but it has dawned on me recently that my conversations with men on the phone are much quicker than my long catch-up chats that I have with girlfriends. I'm not sure why this is exactly, but it must have something to do with those differences between men and women that we all keep trying to understand.

Do you want ads on your cell phone?

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Wednesday, December 27, 2006 (permalink)
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It looks like it's finally going to happen: ads on cell phones. You can slice it any way you want, opt-in, minimal screen appearance, the opportunity to deliver more enticing services, or even promotional opportunities, it's still intrusive to consumers. I'm not opposed to advertising in general. Some advertisements are great and I've even been known to purchase or at least research something a little further based on an advertisement I've seen. But putting ads on cell phones, that's just not the best idea I've heard. I remember when consumers were upset because they started to receive unwanted text messages on cell phones and constantly wondered if they were paying for it.

For starters, it's a small screen and as a consumer, I will be less likely to pay attention to an ad on a phone than anywhere else. Why? Because if I'm using my cell phone to find something on the Web it's most likely because I have no computer access. Even though it's convenient to have the option of finding info located on the Web on a cell phone and I'm a huge fan of data access over cell phones, it's not always the easiest or fastest experience. Why? I usually have to flip between a few screens and though the data connections are getting faster, I don't want my experience slowed down by an ad. Additionally, data plans are still relatively confusing and expensive - many are unlimited, but some have monthly data caps. If you have a monthly data cap plan, does this mean that you're paying not only for your data plan, but losing some of the allotted MBs on an ad? I'm not really sure, but it looks like we'll find out next year.

Individual text message prices rising

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Tuesday, December 26, 2006 (permalink)
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Early next year, Cingular will increase the price of a la carte text messages. Instead of 10 cents a message, you'll have to pay 15 cents a message. The better deal is to just sign-up for a text messaging plan. The lowest cost option is $5 a month for 200 messages, which works out to a little more than 2 cents a message. If you've never sent or received a text message before you'd be surprised by:

A. How many people send/receive text messages. (According to the Mobile Marketing Association, 8 billion text messages are sent every month in the United States.)

B. How quickly the cost of individual text messages can add up. (200 messages at 10 cents a message is $20.)

C. How quickly you'll become addicted to this method of communication.

Samsung Kitchen Sync

by David Frame Follow me on Twitter    |    Tuesday, December 26, 2006 (permalink)
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Thanks to our good friends at Cingular, I am the proud new owner of the Samsung Sync. When they showed this off to us as one in a series of new souped-up 3G phones, I was totally blown away.

Streaming video only a click away. A hot key that launches a music player. A music player that supports multiple formats and ties into Yahoo music, Napster and more. A camcorder! A 2 mega-pixel camera! And download speeds that put my home DSL connection to shame. And best of all, darn cheap. This was the first time I really saw the promise of 3G and multi-media devices come together.

And then I tried to make a phone call. And send a simple text message. And check my voicemail.

Apparently not everything can be a click away, and Cingular chose to make the cool and sexy (and data hungry) features easy to access, but in the process forgot that they are selling a phone.

I spent a good 3-4 days trying to figure out how to find my voicemail... finally giving up and keying in my phone number. After this personal humiliation, I swallowed my pride and asked our editor in chief, our resident cell phone expert, Joni Blecher, to please help me out. Joni is great at making the cryptic simple and putting in the language of normal, non-techie people. Here's the best she could do in answering the simple question "How do I check my voicemail on this thing"?:

"Go to settings and then Shortcuts. Select the navigation key (left, right, center, etc) you want to assign voicemail to, press Options, highlight change and press the Cingular logo button. Use up/down key to choose new app (it should be in that list) - then press Save. If the voice messages or voicemail doesn't show up - there's something wrong.

One other option you can do is create a voicemail contact in your phonebook. Just type in your phone number and you can use that to easily access voicemail from the phone. And if you want even faster access, assign it as one of your speed dials."

Ouch!  Whatever happened to "Pressing 1"?

In the brave new world of multi-media cell phones, have handset manufacturers forgotten the fundamentals?  Or am I simply starting to show my age, the modern-day equivalent of my grandparents who still haven't figured out how to program that darned blinking clock...

Happy Holidays

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Thursday, December 21, 2006 (permalink)
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We wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season. Remember, use your cell phone to enhance your holidays not detract from them! Peace, LetsTalk.com

Cell phones doing double duty as MetroCards? Really.

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Thursday, December 21, 2006 (permalink)
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Don't have time to wait in line to get a new MetroCard to ride the subway? No worries, just pay with your cell phone. Yes, your cell phone. Well, that's the idea of a new trial happening on the 4, 5, and 6 lines in New York. Think of it like having an EzPass for the subway built-in to your phone. It makes sense when you consider a cell phone, like money or some form of credit card, is the one item people usually always have on them. But I wonder about how secure it will be.

For the most part cell phones haven't been too suspect to sending/receiving viruses. Yes, they do appear on phones with a more open OS (i.e. smartphones), but what would this type of functionality mean to exposing cell phones even more?

The downside of music phones

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Wednesday, December 20, 2006 (permalink)
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I was on the train the other day and someone decided to use their cell phone to listen to music. Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. People seem to do it all the time. The particular issue in this case was that the person didn't feel the need to use headphones. Instead, the entire car was exposed to listening to "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me," repeatedly. Yes, repeatedly. It was so disturbing that at least 3 people vacated their seats and went to another car on the train.

There's an unspoken rule on trains, buses, and planes of knowing how to to quietly occupy yourself during travel. I had a book and a cell phone with music on it. I had one other item too: a pair of headphones. It's nice that your phone can play music, but common courtesy rules still apply.

I've owned plenty of buggy cell phones, but this is different

by David Frame Follow me on Twitter    |    Tuesday, December 19, 2006 (permalink)
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If cell phone-dialing telemarketers and SMS-spamming marketers don't have you worried enough about the sanctity and privacy of your cell phone, this one will.

Federal agents have the ability to remotely activate the microphone on your cell phone, whether you are on a call or not, and listen in on what you and the people around you are saying.

Whoa.

And no, this is not based on one of those urban-myth emails my father sends around from his AOL mail account. This is real. And while the feds are pretty tight-lipped about it, apparently certain popular cell phones like the Motorola A900, the Motorola Razr and most Nextel phones (due to the nature of the TDMA network) are vulnerable.

You know what the worst part of all this is? It's going to put a fatal bullet in so many classic movie scenes! You know, where the cops connive to plant a bug or eavesdrop on some crook. Who can forget:

-- Catherine Zeta Jones bringing iced tea to the surveillance van in Traffic

-- Gene Hackman's character Harry "I don't care what they're talking about, all I want is a nice fat recording" Caul in The Conversation

-- Michael Douglas beating Charlie Sheen to a pulp in Central Park in the movie Wall Street, all the while unknowingly being bugged by "Bud Fox"

-- Cheadle, also in Traffic, forcing his way back into the suspects living room and planting a bug under his desk before getting dragged away

-- Cheney, in a preposterous black comedy, asserting that unwarranted wiretaps are legal... hmm... what was the name of that movie again?

This technical innovation is going to make these classics all of a sudden look just as outdated as Pretty Woman does, when Richard Gere pulls that football-sized cell phone out of his briefcase...that scene ruins it for me every time!

A seriously pocket-friendly cell phone

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Monday, December 18, 2006 (permalink)
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Here's yet another cell phone we likely won't see in the United States anytime soon, but it's just too cool not to post. Samsung came out with a cell phone that is decidedly pocket friendly. It's literally the size of a wallet. The SGH-P310 is hidden inside this wallet-like cover. The only external hint that would make you think it was anything other than a wallet is the cut-out square that exposes the 2-megapixel camera lens. Believe it or not, the coolest thing about this cell phone is that the "wallet" actually stores a second battery. Lose battery in one, and you got yourself a backup. I just don't recommend keeping this cell phone in a back pant pocket. You might forget to remove it from the pocket before you sit down and I can't really attest to the wallet's durability. Although this cell phone is "money," there's no place to store any - not even plastic.

A cell phone for every outfit

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Friday, December 15, 2006 (permalink)
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Samsung showed off some nifty cell phones at an event this week. As you can see the SGH-X830 comes in a variety of colors. It's a music-centric GSM cell phone with a swivel design. Though it's not available in the United States from any particular carrier, I just really liked the packaging. Oh, and the overall phone style.

For years, there's been mention of people with GSM service using two cell phones: a work phone that's more business-centric and one for personal time (not as many features and much more portable). I like the idea of buying a box of phones and being able to swap out a cell phone to match my outfit. Make fun, if you will, but I'm not the first person to consider cell phones as a fashion accessory. How'd you think they got so stylish in the first place?

No wonder they call them crackberries

by David Frame Follow me on Twitter    |    Thursday, December 14, 2006 (permalink)
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There has been a lot of talk lately about the legislative momentum to ban cell phone use in cars. Recently, our home state of California passed a law requiring hands-free cell phone usage starting in July 2008.

On my way in to work today, I counted 12 drivers who were holding and actively engaged with wireless devices in their car. 10 of them were holding blackberries!  And doing more than just talking. I tried to take a picture of one driver, but I almost veered off the Golden Gate bridge... case in point, I guess.

In spite of Governor Enforce-enegger's new law, and the widespread agreement that driving and celling is a bad thing, I think the law is doomed to fail.

Much like the war on drugs, the idea of an enforcement-based strategy to reduce a bad, addictive behavior is logically doomed from the start. In the case of drug-addicted junkies and crackberry-addicted yuppies, you have a group of users who have an almost "inelastic demand" to feed their behavior. They are hooked, and they won't stop, no matter how high the cost. Trying to pry one of our venture capitalists away from his Blackberry is harder than getting get my kid to stop sucking a lolipop.

So enforcement efforts inevitably have very little ability to curtail the behavior, as my chart below indicates (where Meq= the total size of the market in equilibrium today and Men = the total size of the market after significant enforcement efforts).

Education, however, shows great promise. And initiatives like the those sponsored by the Governor's Highway Safety Association and CTIA are headed down the right path... again, as my chart shows, efforts to curtail demand in the first place can have a far greater impact in reducing the bad behavior (see Med = total size of the market after education efforts).

So you might give me a C minus on my Freshman year economics, but you can't deny the logic - with addictive behaviors, it's always better to attack the cause than the symptom.

MBuzzy: You Tube for Mobile? It's been here for a while.

by Harrison Lynch Follow me on Twitter    |    Wednesday, December 13, 2006 (permalink)
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There's been a bit of buzz in the press about You Tube launching a mobile app in 2007. In fact You Tube co-founder Chad Hurley made an announcement to that effect at a conference in November. While that's certainly cool that You Tube Mobile is coming to a cell phone near you in 2007, a site called mbuzzy that was launched over a year ago does that same thing and more.

In classic Web 2.0 fashion it's free, cross linked and communitized, and enables you to do a couple things with your cell phone that you might not have known you could:

1. Upload, Share, and download videos and photos. Yes there are other services that allow you to do parts of this with your cell phone (Flickr, You Tube, etc) but MBuzzy's execution is very simple and straight forward and worth checking out.

2. Upload an MP3, use the sound editor to loop a snippet of the song and send it to your phone as a ringtone. This is just flat out cool. You can see the waveform of th esong, set markers for beginning and end, set the loop and so on. And best of all it's free! The one thing you can't do is share your ripped tones with friends as the guys at mbuzzy want to avoid running afoul of the RIA.

You do need to register to use the service, and if you're going to use a cell phone with the site you absolutely need to have an unlimited data plan. Sprint Power Vision customers on the LG Fusic, Sanyo Katana and Samsung Blade and Cingular 3G customers on the LG CU500, Samsung Sync or forthcoming Nokia N75 will love this service.

Parking spots for sale

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Wednesday, December 13, 2006 (permalink)
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I just read this article about a new service for your cell phone (or connected computer) that you can use to pay for information on available parking spots. Essentially, you can use SpotScout to bid on information about when spots will be available in specific locations and also provide information on how long it will take to walk to your final destination. It's not a bad idea. Parking spots are always in high demand.

My concern is that it seems like there's no guarantee that you'll get the spot. Even for it to work well, people would have to be on the honor system. I don't know about you, but I've rarely seen people practicing the honor system when they want a parking spot. Sure, if you've found a spot before someone else in an actual parking lot, people usually pass on it and keep searching. But who is going to give up a spot to someone who has bid on it online? And how would they even know it was bid on? When it comes to parking, the saying "You snooze, you lose," couldn't apply more.

Another way to spend money on my kids

by David Frame Follow me on Twitter    |    Tuesday, December 12, 2006 (permalink)
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Herb Weisbaum at MSNBC recently did a nice little piece covering good cell phones for kids. He highlight's Verizon's Migo, Disney Mobile's LG flip phone, Cingular's Firefly, and the TICTALK by Enforma.

All good stuff, but give me a break. My son loses his lunchbox 3 times a week; do you really think I'm going to give him a cell phone?

If there is any one feature that matters to me in evaluating all these phones, I have to say, the little caribiner loop on the TICTALK is intriguing....

Serious bling

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Monday, December 11, 2006 (permalink)
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Cell phones that have bling is nothing new. I still remember Sex and the City episodes where Carrie Bradshaw sported a Motorola cell phone decked out with Swarovski crystals. It wasn't long after that when we started seeing cell phones that even came with interchangeable bling faceplates (aka Sanyo 8300). Here's one that goes one step further. A line of cell phones from Goldvish Illusion that cost between $29,000 and $1.26 million are decked out with 18kt gold and diamonds. Yes, that's right. Our photographer wants to add this model to her holiday wish list. She'd happily ditch her flip phone for this candy-bar style cell phone.

T-Mobile MyFaves

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Thursday, December 07, 2006 (permalink)
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T-Mobile announced a few new MyFaves plans. I'm a big fan of the MyFaves idea (I do so love the commercials promoting it) because when you're calling people you don't always remember which friend uses which network. So trying to calculate how many minutes you used can be a bit cumbersome.

There are a few things to know before signing up for these plans. First, the unlimited calling to your MyFaves members is quite literally for calling. It does not include text messages. So if you're a big texter be sure to get a text messaging plan as well. T-Mobile has a great selection. Second, if you sign up for the $60 per month plan, it doesn't include unlimited off-peak calls as is the case with the other plans. If you mostly make calls at night, you should be fine with the $60/month plan. If you make calls during the day to your MyFaves folks, get the higher priced plan.

James Kim

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Tuesday, December 05, 2006 (permalink)
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We've all been following the news of CNET editor James Kim and his family. You may have seen how cell phone technology was used to help locate the Kim family. This is the result of a mandate put in place a couple of years ago to help find people based on their cell phone location. Our thoughts are with the Kim family as we await news of James' safe return to his family.

Orbitz says

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Tuesday, December 05, 2006 (permalink)
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Previously, I mentioned I brought a cell phone with me to Costa Rica that I knew wouldn't work there. Why do a such thing? Just in case. You never know when you need to make a call or need a phone number stored in your cell phone's address book. Turns out we did. We got one set of plane tickets through Orbitz. They have a service, like many airline and online travel companies, that sends alerts with the status of your flight to your cell phone. I signed my friend up for that service since she has a plan that supports a ton of text messages.

Turns out we were delayed leaving Costa Rica. The airport actually closed while we were on the plane. An almost complete screening of the The Devil Wears Prada later, we were able to take off. We had a connecting flight in the US to our final destination. We landed and discovered that if our flight was on time we probably would never make it. My friend turned on her cell phone and informed me, "Orbitz says our flight is on time." Foiled. It was late and one of the last connecting flights. We still had to clear customs and get our bags.

I turned on my cell phone, found the number of the airline stored in my Contacts folder and called for help. I managed to secure us both on the next available flight (only a half hour later) before we even cleared customs. Turns out calling the airline direct worked out because we got on the last flight that night and it was packed.

Never stop fighting 'til the fight is done

by David Frame Follow me on Twitter    |    Monday, December 04, 2006 (permalink)
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... Kevin Costner as Elliot Ness, from the Untouchables

Call me the Elliot Ness of cell phone etiquette. It is my personal passion/mission/vendetta to right the evil wrongs thrust upon us by the clueless/obnoxious/obstinate cell phone abusers of the world.

I'm happy to report that I'm in good company. We can't win this fight sitting down. Recently, Regal Entertainment Group starting distributing devices to moviegoers that allows them to alert theater security about cell phone abusers. Hey, I say go for it, and if that doesn't work, let's put undercover federal marshals in the theater too.

Of course, the best advice of all might be to follow the guidance of Elliot Ness's partner, Jim Malone (played by Sean Connery). Deep Scottish accent please...

You wanna know how you do it? Here's how, they pull a Motorola Razr, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way, and that's how you get Cell Phone Abusers! Now do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that?

Clearly, Nick Wiess and his new video knows where I'm comin' from...

Now THAT's what I'm talking about!

Tiny phones

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Friday, December 01, 2006 (permalink)
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Countries in Central America get a bad wrap about the lack of cool cell phones that can be found there. It is true they don't have the latest and greatest cell phones. Consumers there tend to have models that came out here a little over a year ago. If you think about how fast new cell phones are available here, it might seem like the cell phones in those countries are mobile dinosaurs. That's just not true. Some of the phones I saw in Costa Rica, for example, I know people who still have those same models here. The main difference really is that they don't tend to be decked out with a ton of features.

They also have something we don't: a plethora of small handsets. I don't have the biggest hands on the planet, so I'm always on the lookout for petite phones. Every where I looked the cell phones seemed smaller and smaller. So many reminded me of Sony Ericsson's super popular T68 cell phone. I can't help but wonder why we don't have more smaller cell phones available here. Perhaps the Krzr will start a spark and small cell phones will make a comeback.

Costa Rica's calling... can you answer?

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Wednesday, November 29, 2006 (permalink)
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I just got back from Costa Rica and although I specifically took a cell phone with me that I could not use on vacation, I've got some good phone info for travelers.

Let's start with why I couldn't use the cell phone I had in Costa Rica. That's simple, I brought a CDMA cell phone (Verizon, Sprint service provider) and the network in Costa Rica is GSM (T-Mobile, Cingular). I did this on purpose. During vacation I have no desire to be in touch in any way. That's why it's a vacation.

Second, if you want to use a cell phone while in Costa Rica, rent one before you leave. Now, if you were headed to Europe I'd say so long as you have an unlocked world phone, get a SIM card at the airport. You'll be able to make calls easily throughout the country and avoid coming home to a huge bill. That's simply not the case here. If you want to stay connected while away - think Internet (though not blazing fast, apparently you can type and send an e-mail easily enough) or rent a cell phone. Just don't expect to get off the plane and get a local-based SIM card to put in your cell phone, as would be the case in Europe. It's just not done that way.

The ICE (pronounced ECHE) network is run by the government and if you want to get a cell phone, you'll need an abogado (that's lawyer) to get one. Then you'll need to figure out if you want a green or pink chip. I didn't get the details on the difference between the two, but apparently pink is the way to go.

I have more phone observations from my trip, but that's for manana.

Long live the shortcode!

by David Frame Follow me on Twitter    |    Tuesday, November 28, 2006 (permalink)
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The topic of short-code marketing through user's cell phones has taken a lot of heat recently, and certainly inflames the passions of many cell phone users out there.

Consider the criticism that Jamster received when it started promoting ringtone subscriptions via SMS to shortcodes.

And the promotional "hype" associated with contests and SMS/short-code promotions like those featured on Let's Make a Deal and American Idol. Or my favorite morning radio station, Alice 97.3, giving away free tickets to the "900th listener" who texts to their shortcode.

Well, beyond the hype and promotion, there are some smart marketers out there bringing us back to the basics. Remembering that marketing is fundamentally about helping consumers make more well informed decisions. And respecting the sanctity of our cell phones, keeping in mind that it should be functional and useful, not a nuisance.

HGTV allows viewers to request that a shopping list be text messaged to their cell phones, so they can actually take on one of those hairball projects HGTV features all day long. Now that's useful.

Or the partnership BET and Motricity have developed, allowing viewers to test to BETTV when a video is airing to receive links to the artists' content on a mobile content storefront.

Or, of course, Google Text, my favorite short-coding service, that allows users to type in what they are looking for, text it along with your zip code to GOOGL, and receive back a geographically appropriate set of links and addresses - this is, hands down, my favorite "cell phone party trick".

So let's not throw the short-code baby out with the spammy bathwater.

Batteries to go

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Monday, November 27, 2006 (permalink)
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I review a lot of cell phones and part of that process includes talking or texting on it until the battery dies. That's great for the people who read the reviews, but it's not so great for me when I find myself with only the cell phone I'm testing, needing to make a call or send a text and no battery. Now, I'm not opposed to the pay phone, but I can never remember a phone number -- that's stored in the cell phone. It was a problem, until I saw this nifty portable charger, Turbo Charger.

The battery operated device comes with about 10 different adapters, so it's suited to fit a bunch of models. This is great for me since I rotate through so many cell phones. It costs about $20 for just one adapter or $5 more to get all the adapters. Wonder which one I got?

The real heat in cell phone innovation

by David Frame Follow me on Twitter    |    Friday, November 24, 2006 (permalink)
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In my last post, I examined some of the ways cell phones may be used to help take on major geo-sociological issues such as monitoring CO2 levels and managing the outbreaks of infectious diseases.

But, hey that's all pie in the sky and pretty ho-hum. Who knows if any of that will ever see the light of day? The capitalist in me says there's more opportunity in "low-brow" product innovation... and the evidence speaks for itself.

A small sampling of the bizarre and commercially available cell phone features you can amuse yourself with right now:

-- Breathalyzer - LG's LP 4100 offers sobriety tests "on the go".

-- Perfume phone - multiple scent-tone options to boot

-- Call your dog from work and let it know you're running late

-- Monitor your body fat

-- Contribute to a symphony

-- Fight bad breath

God bless capitalism.

Saving the environment - one cell phone at a time

by David Frame Follow me on Twitter    |    Wednesday, November 22, 2006 (permalink)
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There has been a lot of press lately about the ability of cell phones to track movement and user behaviors, even integrating these data into a Geographical Information System (GIS), to produce services like traffic congestion monitoring Kris mentioned last week.

This concept gets a whole lot more interesting when you apply it on a global scale, and start to think about geospacial concepts like environmental monitoring and pandemics.

Researches at UC Berkeley are experimenting with inexpensive add-on devices, which if integrated into cell phones, could bring this concept to life. Simple environmental sensors would allow us to monitor and manage significant global issues like Carbon Monoxide emissions and outbreaks of Mad Cow Disease as well as ordinary, close to home issues, like home pollutants. And by offering a way to quickly/immediately report on disease outbreaks, responses to large scale pandemics may be made more timely and effective.

I know, I know, too Big Brother. And too political. I'm not quite sure President Ahmadinejad is going to sign up for having plutonium sensors installed in his citizens cell phones, and I'm not even sure I want some monitoring agency to know that I haven't taken a shower in 3 days, but there are clearly some world-changing opportunities out there, and I laud those who are thinking these thoughts and pushing these ideas.

Blackberry not required

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Tuesday, November 21, 2006 (permalink)
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I was recently asked by someone, who uses a cell phone non-stop to make and receive calls and even find local movie theaters and times, "Which Blackberry should I get?"

I asked, as I always do, "Tell me, what do you want to do with a Blackberry."

She replied, "Check my e-mail."

"And what kind of e-mail would that be? Is it personal e-mail and do you want to read or respond to it?"

She answered, "It's Yahoo e-mail and I only want to read it."

Knowing she's a big fan of flip phones, and not so much a fan of Blackberry's (She'd already been through 3 different models), I gave her some good news. "You don't need a Blackberry for that, you can check it right on your cell phone."

I showed her how to do it and she couldn't be happier. The truth is lots of people think that you need a Blackberry to check e-mail, but really all the carriers provide a way to check at the very least AOL, Yahoo and MSN e-mail accounts from your cell phone. Check it out, it's usually listed as Mobile Mail or Email under messages.

Mobile friend finder

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Wednesday, November 15, 2006 (permalink)
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Boost Mobile announced the release of Boost Loopt, a service that alerts you when friends are nearby. You can then see their location on a map on your cell phone. The service is free until 2007 in an effort to get people to try it and hopefully become hooked enough to pay for it. The nice thing about this service is that it's totally opt-in. If you don't want your friends to find you, don't opt-in. It's not surprising Boost announced such a service as it ties in so well with the company marketing: "Where you at?" This service will literally inform people "Where they're at."

This isn't the first attempt to have devices you carry reveal your physical location. But as is the case with most things in life: timing is everything. I'm not sure the time is right or not. I do know that this needs to be opt-in (which it is) if it has any chance at all. In the end, the success of the service will likely depend on how people value their privacy.

Widsets' RSS widgets for your phone

by Harrison Lynch Follow me on Twitter    |    Tuesday, November 14, 2006 (permalink)
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WidSets is one of those things that I noticed in a Google News Alert about a two months ago, thought I bookmarked, then took me the two months to find. But I'm glad I did, as this is a great tool. Basically, Widsets is an RSS reader for your cell phone. But it's more polished than that. You download an application to your cell phone, then once you launch it ,a dashboard is displayed of all of your widgets (see graphic below.)

Big deal, what's this do for me you ask? Well for starters it's an RSS reader for your cell phone. While there are a few cell phones which already support RSS feeds natively (my Nokia N80 for example, as well as the Nokia N91 & Nokia N93, and Nokia E70); they're a bit wonky to configure and I could never get mine to work consistently.

At the moment I am using my Widset for blog and news RSS feeds only, but there's actually a lot more that you can do. For example, you can create a Flickr widget that will update with new photos from you or your friends in your Flickr group as well as public photos. And if your Flickr contacts post a photo of themselves, you can pull those down and into your cell phone contacts (at least according to a poster on the WidSets board.) You can also create one for your GMail account, Yahoo mail or most any other web mail service and read your mail from the widget rather than logging on individually.

There is also a Wikipedia widget that will give you the search box and return the entry. (Note: If this widget catches on in any degree of popularity it is sure to lead to the banning of cell phones during pub quizes.) If you don't see a widget you want, it's a snap to create your own using the WidsSet Studio. I created several already, including ones for ESPN's Bill Simmons, the Lakers blog in the LA Times and one for Cool Hunting. I even created one for our own PhoneTalk which will also have a cool "add me to your WidSets" button at the top of this blog very soon. (This feature is available for all widgets.)

But wait . . . there's even more! You'll notice a WidSets widget on your dashboard as well as a traffic monitor when you're logged in on their website. This allows you to monitor hwo many KB's you've used for the months. Very handy if you're not on an unlimited data plan.

So go ahead, check it out. It's proven very handy while waiting for my semi-reliable SF Muni train each day. It is still in beta and you might have to be patient with a few hiccups, so be sure to check their forum for any troubleshooting. Unfortunately at present, this only works with Cingular and Sprint.

And right now WidSet is giving away a free (Read more)

Speed Texting

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Monday, November 13, 2006 (permalink)
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The Guinness World Record for fastest texter has been broken, by who else, a teenager. It took sixteen-year-old Ang Chuang Yang 42.22 seconds to enter a 160 character text message. He's got some fast fingers!

ICE, ICE baby

by David Frame Follow me on Twitter    |    Monday, November 13, 2006 (permalink)
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When it comes to forwarding rumors and myths over the internet, my 62 year old father runs with the best. What I love about the emails I get from him is not just that they are prolific and full of urban myth, but from what I can tell, usually about 2 years out of date. Maybe email works slower in Maine, everything else does...

Today, kudos to dad. He passed along a slightly dated, yet insightful, piece this morning on the importance of storing emergency contacts in a very visible way on your cell phone. In a nutshell, it advocates storing the contact name ICE (In Case of Emergency)with the phone number of the person you'd like to have emergency personnel contact in your cell phone. You can also enter ICE1, ICE2, ICE3, etc. for multiple contacts. If you're interested in learning more, take a deep breath, and blow some dust off this very good idea here.

This gave me some other ideas as well. I was actually fortunate enough to have an industrious bus driver pick up my (almost lost) cell phone and dial the contact name "Home." What a great surprise... it makes me think that there are a lot of potential entries:

FOUND MY CELL PHONE? - your number

PARIS H. - your mother in law's number

FREE DOWNLOADS - your carrier's customer service line

STOLE MY CELL PHONE? - cheap (international) long distance service

GUIDO THE KILLER PIMP - make one up, doubt they'll dial this one

LOUIE THE HITMAN- ditto

INSTANT CASH ADVANCE  - local police station

Cell phone faux pas taken to a new level

by David Frame Follow me on Twitter    |    Monday, November 13, 2006 (permalink)
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I think I have may just witnessed the mother of all breaches of etiquette. Not just cell phone etiquette, but plain, simple etiquette.

Let's start with the basics:

Using your cell phone in a restaurant - only 21% of Americans say it's OK

Using your cell phone to break up with your boyfriend - UNCOOL

Using your cell phone to break up with your boyfriend via text - WHOA

Using your cell phone to break up with your husband via text - PRICELESS

Yes, as this video shows, apparently Britney delivered her big news to K-Fed (now referred to as Fed-Ex) over his cell phone. And I felt guilty about mailing in my ballot on election day!

Surprisingly, Kevin isn't the innovator of text-dumping, according to a poll by Sicap, a messaging services provider in Switzerland, 9% of Brits and 20% of British teens admitted to dumping their partner by text. I guess that's better than finding your girlfriends' name on your best friends MyFave list...

Below, a metaphorical representation of the damage Britney's text message did to Kevin's psyche...

Gmail on the Go: The advancement towards the inevitable continues.

by Harrison Lynch Follow me on Twitter    |    Thursday, November 09, 2006 (permalink)
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I saw a headline on MarketWatch the other day that read: “The Google phone is coming” and that “Whaaaat???” sound when off in my head. As you might know by now, this didn’t portend Google’s jump into the carrier or MVNO arena but rather their latest release in what is quickly becoming a very, very cool suite of apps. And it brings to three the total of functions or applications that Google has released for cell phones that I find nearly essential:

1. Gmail for Mobile Application

2. Google SMS Search

3. Google Maps for Mobile

Gmail for Mobile Application: The new product in question is Google’s Gmail for mobile application which is not to be confused with Google’s Gmail for mobile browser . What’s the difference? The Gmail for mobile application is (as the name implies) an application that you download to your cell phone which gives you a mobilized version of your Gmail screen as opposed to the WAP site that you can access directly from your cell phone’s XHTML browser. (a brief summary of the difference can also be found here as well as in the graphic below) The best part is that once it’s installed on your cell phone (about a five minute process) you’re just an icon click and a (slightly annoying) connection confirmation click away from viewing your Gmail account. Just type: http://gmail.com/app in your cell phone's browser, once it's installed you get access to all of the Gmail features like organization by conversation and searching your emails for a subject. If you delete an email from the phone it's deleted from the web. As a plus, if you’ve synched up your contacts with Gmail then you can highlight the contact’s phone number to initiate a call. This part is kind of cool, though I don’t use the contacts feature of Gmail and I’m not certain how many do. Additionally, my Nokia N80 couldn’t spot the phone numbers within an email like it can in an SMS message, so that’s a bit of a bummer. Just make sure that you have a data plan, and an unlimited one at that if you’re not used to keeping a close watch on your data usage

The Google SMS search function has been around for over a year and it’s so simple:

1) Create text message to 46645 (GOOGL)

2) Key in what you’re looking for whether it be pizza, coffee shop, gas station, or the title of a movie and the zip code or city and state of where you want to look

3) hit send. Within seconds you’ll get back 1 – 3 SMS messages with Google Local’s search results with address and phone number of a relevant business.

Samsung Sync

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Thursday, November 09, 2006 (permalink)
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Giving cell phones hip names seems to be all the rage these days. All I have to say is finally! Makes it much easier to find the cell phone you want. On that note, Samsung's A707 "Sync" will be coming soon to Cingular service.

This Samsung cell phone looks and feels a lot like it's younger sibling the "Blade," but it has a ton more features. In addition the expected multimedia features (1.3-megapixel camera, video, and MP3 playback), the Sync is a world phone, has a microSD slot to add more memory, and will also work with HSDPA networks for super fast wireless web browsing. We saw it up close and the screen is crisp.

Sundance Shorts Coming to a Mobile Screen Near You

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Wednesday, November 08, 2006 (permalink)
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Approximately, twenty years after the first Sundance Film Festival, the Sundance organization is doing something new to expose consumers to independent film makers. The Sundance Institute, Sundance Film Festival and the GSM Association announced news that they are creating 5 "shorts" specifically for the mobile screen. The "shorts" will debut in February at GSM World Congress in Barcelona (a huge European cell phone show) where show visitors will be able to download the shorts to their cell phones.

The 3- to 5-minute "shorts" are being created by Sundance Institute Directors: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine); Jody Hill (The Foot Fist Way); Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow, Annapolis, and Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift); Maria Maggenti (The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love); Cory McAbee (The American Astronaut).

The idea is that these "shorts" will take on a viral role as people send them either via Bluetooth, IR (this will be painfully slow), or MMS to other folks with cell phones. Hopefully there won’t be any DRM issues to curtail the potential popularity of the project. The Sundance Institute and GSM Association are hoping for a viral effect. The films will be free at the GSM World Congress and initially available through carriers after the show. Oh and although this announcement was made with the GSM Association, we were informed that the films should still be compatible with CDMA handsets as well.

Robert Redford made a good point when he commented, "There will always be a need for content no matter how diverse the delivery method." He's right. It is all about content. Creating compelling content that's not too long and not too short will be key to the success of mobile data. The cell phones that can showcase this type of content are here, even the super high-speed networks are beginning to roll-out so even downloading these films shouldn’t be disappointing.

But the way they're promoting this project is also right. It's not about making it difficult for people to access the content they want, it’s about making it easily available. Maybe one day, we'll get a miniSD card included with a DVD of an Independent Film and we would be free to view what’s on that card on just about any cell phone.

Now you see it...

by David Frame Follow me on Twitter    |    Tuesday, November 07, 2006 (permalink)
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Jessica Biel, who won automatic creds with me for agreeing to perform in a movie called Cellular, and who is now the star of the box-office hit The Illusionist, shows off some of her own cellular illusions in what appears to be a "secret hiding place" for her cell phone. I'd suggest some simple carrying cases that would do a much better job, but unfortunately, after several hours of close study, I just can't pick out the model of her phone...

Get election results Now

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Monday, November 06, 2006 (permalink)
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Want to keep track of all the latest happenings in the election while on-the-go? If you're a Verizon Wireless customer, you're in luck. The home page of the Mobile Web on your cell phone will be updated every 5 minutes with the latest pole stats as reported by the AP.

Cell phone smack

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Monday, November 06, 2006 (permalink)
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These days it seems people are way too fast to make judgments based on the cell phone you tote. Let's flip that coin: what happens if you're too rude to someone about the cell phone they carry?.

A friend of mine went on a date with a new guy. She thought everything was fine until he spotted her cell phone, the Motorola e815. Apparently, he thought it was something out of the stone age because it was soooo big. Seriously, the cell phone isn't that big. And so what if it is? She likes it. That's all that matters. He continued to spend the evening making fun of her beloved cell phone with such winning jokes: "That phone is so big it looks like you're holding a shoe up to your ear." If you're going to ridicule a cell phone at least be clever. And back in the day, Get Smart made shoe phones cool.

After hearing the story, I looked at her and said, "So, I'm guessing you didn't talk to him again and when he called, your phone was just too heavy to pick-up?"

She agreed. The moral is don't make fun of your date's cell phone. It's like making fun of their shoes or an outfit they're wearing. It's just bad form and a sure fire way for them to conveniently lose your number.

38% of Americans approve of this?

by David Frame Follow me on Twitter    |    Monday, November 06, 2006 (permalink)
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Look, I'll be the first to admit that I love working with dedicated, hardworking people. And frankly, I thrive on the energy and controlled chaos, that comes with a good lively work environment. The "Blackberry effect" (when you see a number of folks in a large meeting staring consipcuously down into their laps), doesn't even bother me.

But cell phones in the bathroom? Dude, at least consider the benefits of a hands-free device. I don't know about the 38% of the population that thinks this is OK, but in my book this kind of multi-tasking just doesn't fly...

Is it that time? Your cell phone knows

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Thursday, November 02, 2006 (permalink)
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Here's something you don't see everyday: a cell phone that tells you when you're ovulating. Seriously. According to Tokyo blogger Tokyololas, the FOMA D702iF cell phone is all about her and is available in an array of pastel colors. Besides telling you the day you're ovulating as well as alerting you three days before, it also has a recipe database. Random. Perhaps it should also include a text message alert feature that reminds you when to buy chocolate at the store.

It's all about personalization

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Wednesday, November 01, 2006 (permalink)
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This article states fashion is an important decision factor when purchasing a cell phone. Yes, style is indeed a consideration, but so is personalization. Consumers personalize cell phones in many ways, whether its creating a list of text message responses that fit their personality, downloading ringtones, purchasing stylish cases or adding some bling - eventually, people add a little dash of themselves to their cell phone.

Verizon has added more personalization options for customers by teaming up with SkinIt to launch V Skin. Think: a removable tattoo for your cell phone. Can't find anything you like in the library of choices? No worries, you can upload a favorite picture and create your own "skin."

Personalization and style are all part of the cell phone experience. I'm the first to get excited by a tasteful Swarovski crystal design on a phone, c'mon a girl's gotta have her bling. But I still think a cell phone should work the way I want first and be stylish second. Call me old fashioned. I can take it.

FCC Auction 66 & the AWS Spectrum: What does this mean?

by Harrison Lynch Follow me on Twitter    |    Tuesday, October 31, 2006 (permalink)
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The FCC recently concluded Auction 66, selling off rights to a huge amount of spectrum for a whopping $13.7 Billion. The blanket term applied to this block of spectrum is AWS or Advanced Wireless Services (if not creative, the FCC is at least succinctly broad in its names.) You might have seen mention of it and wondered what it all means. Rich Brome over at Phonescoop has done an outstanding job of summarizing the AWS spectrum, what it means for both the carriers and consumers, and when and in what form the results will impact the wireless industry. If the T-Mobile USA 3G offering is anything like their voice packages, we should all be very pleased. You’ll also get to look at this cool FCC map of the entire wireless spectrum (also below) and a very good breakdown of how each carrier intends to use the spectrum. 

My quick take: the spectrum is going to enable a lot of new technology to finally reach cell phones and other wireless devices that up until now has been limited to over-hyping and fantasy TV commercials (A circa 1999 AT&T “You Will!” ad and a Nortel ad come to mind.) And it gets the US a few steps closer to having some sort of common spectrum with the rest of the world, which would bring down the development costs of cell phone handsets as well as loosen just a bit the death-grip that US carriers have on our cell phone selection. All of that said, with the exception of T-Mobile USA launching 3G in 2007, none of this is coming for about a year minimum, probably more like two. So, if you’re holding out for a 2100mhz 3.5G phone with DVB-H, well, you’re in for quite a wait. In the meantime grab an Nokia N80 and start using TiVoToGo. It may not be all that you’re waiting for, but it’s here now.

[Note to Rich: If you’re reading this, how about a similar in depth exploration of why in the first place we dedicated spectrum bands to wireless that differed from everyone else in the world?]

GPS - Global Potty Satellite?

by David Frame Follow me on Twitter    |    Tuesday, October 31, 2006 (permalink)
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With all the wonders of GPS technology embedded in cell phones, is anyone worried that we'll lose our good, common sense of direction and situational awareness? What ever happened to pulling over and asking for directions?

I was amused to learn about a German motorist that accidentally drove into an outhouse while following the (misguided) directions he was recieving from a GPS device.

Well I'm happy to report that many other countries are a step ahead of bonehead GPS-users like this. Again, rather than relying on the common sense and visual acuity of its citizens, believe it or not, the Australian government supports a GPS-based public toilet map.

Now if I could only get something like this for my 2 year old to find the potties in our house...

Travel Log

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Tuesday, October 31, 2006 (permalink)
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A friend of mine is heading to Italy at the end of the week and before heading out he asked me if I knew if his Samsung T509 cell phone would work on his travels. Since the T509 can operate on the GSM 1800 network (that's one of the networks used in Italy), technically it should work. But making calls from Italy using his existing T-Mobile service would undoubtedly be pricey. And wouldn't that money be better spent sipping Limoncello or having gelato in a piazza?

While his cell phone will work in Italy, there are a few things he can do to save on calls. First, if he needs to get in touch with anyone stateside he should send a text message (much more affordable than an actual call). Second, if he needs to make calls in Italy, he can unlock his cell phone (this requires a special code usually available from the carrier or the phone manufacturer) and simply insert a prepaid SIM card that he purchases in Italy.

Most importantly, he needs to make sure he has an international charger. After all, it really won't matter if he can send/receive messages and calls if his cell phone is out of juice.

Damn the pusher man

by David Frame Follow me on Twitter    |    Tuesday, October 31, 2006 (permalink)
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I'll admit it - I push cell phones. I love cell phone junkies, and covet the idea of a chicken in every pot and 2 cell phones in every pocket. And I don't just push, I partake - while I started with the "harmless stuff", like my Cingular Motorola Razr, I'm now getting sucked into the serious stuff - after dabbling with a Sidekick III, I'm toying with taking the plunge and tasting the sweet, sweet Nokia E62 and of course, the coveted Nokia N95.

So I'm sucked in - and I want everyone else to be too. But recently, I've noticed a bit of a backlash; from cell-phone free days, to cell phone demolition contests, to myriads of local retailers who are posting signs hostile to cell phone owners. Our cell phone etiquette research indicates that there is less and less tolerance for cell phone misuse and abuse.

Perhaps this is a simple case of too much of a good thing...

The skinny on cell phone insurance

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Monday, October 30, 2006 (permalink)
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If Dave is really considering purchasing insurance here are a few things he needs to think about:

Insurance is great if you need a new handset only once a year. Most insurance plans will replace your existing cell phone if something happens to it, once every 12 months. You will still have to pay the deductible, which is usually between $35 and $50. That's still cheaper than buying a new handset.

If you're thinking of getting insurance as a way to inexpensively upgrade your cell phone. Don't do it. You don't really have a choice about the replacement model. If you lose or damage your existing cell phone, the insurance company will send you the same model or if it's no longer available, a similar model (meaning: same feature set, but there's no guarantee you'll get a cell phone from the same manufacturer).

Overall, insurance is a good solution for people who tend to occasionally lose or break their cell phone. Dave should first decide if his cell phone streak is finally over. If it is, insurance might not be the best fit. If it's not, he should add it to his service...Pronto.

Lost? Try this

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Thursday, October 26, 2006 (permalink)
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Cingular finally announced details about availability of the iPaq hw-6920 series smartphones. Looks like it will be just in time for Halloween. New cell phones come out all the time; I'm more interested in some of the things you can do with them. For example, the 6920 will support TeleNav's GPS Navigator application. The software does a lot of the things that come to mind when you think of GPS, such as turn-by-turn directions in the car and on foot, and even voice-activated directions to keep you from missing a turn or from paying just a little too much attention to your cell phone while driving.

The directions are nice, but I'm actually quite fond of getting lost. That way next time I find myself down one of those initially scary streets, I always know how to get somewhere else. So, clearly, this kind of software isn't completely appealing to me. What I do like, however, is the ability to find gas stations and even your car in a crowded parking lot (after all, holiday shopping isn't far off.). I tend to take loads of road trips and though I can usually find my way (it's really more about the journey) to a destination, I can’t always find a gas station. I haven’t had a chance to review the software yet, but I’m looking forward to putting it to the test.

Now, I should note, this isn't the only way to go, there is always the mobile Google maps application and a few others. But I'll leave it to Harrison to cover that.

I can't friggin' believe it...

by David Frame Follow me on Twitter    |    Thursday, October 26, 2006 (permalink)
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I am the world's biggest (cell phone) loser.

My Sidekick was stolen from my car this morning. My replacement cell phone I lost in Vegas still has that "new car smell", and now I'm headed down the replacement path again...

The spookiest thing of all was when I started getting blind copied (I set my Sidekick up to bbc my work email address when I send email) on e-mails from the crook that stole my phone, with the following subject lines:

subj: download software

subj: ringtone subscription

This immediately inspired me to cancel my morning meetings and take my own advice.

So this begs the question of whether I should bite the bullet and buy handset insurance this time around. At roughly $40 a year, I've historically been too cheap to bother, but man, these phones cost a fortune when you're not lighting up a new plan, and I'm beginning to think the insurance option is a good idea!

I still get a ton of questions, comments, and complaints about cell phones. See, I've been covering cell phones so long that the amount of knowledge on the topic stored in my brain even amazes me. Here's one I got last night:

Received text message: This old startac is worthless and can be tossed, right? (see below for accompanying picture message)

My response: U can sell it. Peeps collect them.

It is true, people do collect cell phones – sort of like a cell phone museum. Also, once people find a cell phone they like, they're hard pressed to upgrade to a new model. The Motorola StarTac is one of those models that people just loved. Rightfully so, it was one of the first it cell phones to own from Motorola, which gives this particular cell phone a bit of an iconic stature. (Note: Motorola later followed up its flip phone success with the V60 and most recently with the Razr – the company clearly gets flip phone appeal). A quick look on eBay shows one on auction for over $50.

Say my friend doesn’t want to deal with the whole eBay auction deal. That's fine, there are other options, just don’t throw it away. It’s just not good for the environment. Instead the StarTac can be donated to charity or can even be recycled and redeemed for money to spend on accessories or another cell phone.

Losers like me

by David Frame Follow me on Twitter    |    Wednesday, October 25, 2006 (permalink)
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In my last post, I mentioned that “millions of cell phones” are lost each year. I thought it might be fun to do the “business-school interview question” game, and see if I can’t put together a reasonable estimate of exactly how may are lost. I Googled all over for data on this, with little luck. I did, however, stumble on one article that studies this topic as it relates to cell phones lost in taxis. According to this article, the average cab picks up 3.4 cell phones a year. Based on the size of the fleet studied, this cab fleet ALONE would have recovered close to 170,000 phones, just in the city of Chicago.

So let’s have some fun with numbers:

Say this major taxi fleet represents 40% of total cab rides in Chicago. Projecting this out to all Chicago based cabs means 425,000 cell phones are lost per year, JUST in taxicabs, JUST in Chicago.

Chicago’s a pretty big town, 3rd biggest metro area and 2nd largest number of city residents in the US, which works out to roughly 3-4% of the total US population. Now Chicago is a big cab town, and not all US citizens will take a cab as often as Chicagoans do. O’Hare is, after all, the biggest airport in the United States and my personal sense is that 2/3 of Chicagoans are consultants. On top of that, if my personal experience is any indication, I’m going to guess that a disproportionate number of cell phones lost in cabs come from Wrigley Field patrons (to be precise, Bleacher Bums) or even more likely, post-game Murphy’s Bleachers patrons, riding home in an inebriated, forgetful state. And we all know that there is only one Wrigley! So net-net, let’s guess that Chicago represents something like 15% of all the cab rides in the United States. Using this “cowboy math” leads me to conclude that something like 3mm cell phones are lost each year, just in taxicabs!

I don’t know about you, but I am perfectly capable of losing my phone in lots of places, not just cell phones. Now I really don’t have any science to back this up, but when you factor in other obvious cell phone gobbling culprits we all may experience such as restaurants, public restrooms, buses, subways, airplanes, sports arenas, and of course, the black hole of sofas across America, I’m going to venture a SWAG and say that cabs only gobble 10% of the phones that disappear.

So if my math is right, and if you buy my assumption layered upon assumption, I’m gonna guess that 30mm cell phones get lost each year. Of course, I never did get that McKinsey job offer and all this may really be is an elaborate way to make me feel better about my bonehead loss of 2 cell phones in the last 2 weeks.

Where’s the love?

As a loyal customer of my wireless carrier, I might think that my carrier would quickly replace my cell phone and do anything they can to keep me on their service. And they did… sort of. I guess it just depends on what my definition of “my cell phone” is….

As a relatively new customer with several months to go on my contract, “my cell phone”, which in my case was a Motorola Razr V3, is now a refurbished Nokia 6030 for something like $75. Now the 6030 is a solid cell phone at a great price, and it certainly does most everything I need a cell phone to do, but switching over feels a bit like replacing a Porsche convertible with a Volvo wagon. Gosh, my carrier loved me sooo much when they showered me with a free Razr 12 months ago, and now this? Was it something I said?

If you are out of contract or approaching the end of your contract (typically 2-3 months left on a 2 year deal or 1-2 months left on a 12 month deal), you may be a bit luckier. Most carriers are savvy enough to know that you’ll soon be shopping for a cool new handset (and therefore a new service plan), so they will be more than willing to offer a special price for a “contract extension”, where you “re-up” for another 2 years. In most cases, this means they will discount the retail price of the phone by about $100-200. As a side note, I’ve found that a few carriers have some “double secret contract extension” programs, where they will extend contracts to good customers who are still several months away from contract expiration. Like most things in life, it looks to me like this is very negotiable.

Finally, if you are out of contract, and not feeling the love for your carrier and what they are willing to do to replace “your handset”, you can always shop around with other carriers. Carriers LOVE new customers (especially ones coming from their competitors) and typically offer steep discounts on the hottest new cell phones. But, remember, that love can sometime have a fleeting feeling…

(Imagine this in a Vin Scully tone) Hello everybody and thanks for reading my blog. It is my aim in the coming months to ply you with the latest news in, well, cool stuff you can do with your phone.

In what will be a recurring theme here at Phone Smarts, I’m talking about streaming content from your Home PC, DVR, Satellite or Cable Service to your cell phone. There are a number of emerging ways to do this, spanning the spectrum from the ultra geek to something that I could recommend to my mom without having to worry about receiving frequent troubleshooting calls. Slingbox’s SlingPlayer Mobile definitely fits down on the mom end, and they just announced that they are porting SlingPlayer Mobile over to Symbian’s S60 OS. This is huge. Previously, SlingPlayer Mobile was only available for the Windows Mobile family of products which limited it’s availability to about ~15% of the overall cell phone market. S60 is much, much bigger, occupying around ~67% of the worldwide market (smart phones. Both figures are from a Canalys Report summarized on All About Symbian.) SlingPlayer Mobile should be here in the US just after New Years, which will basically give us all several winter months to tinker with it until wedding season. And then you’ll never need to miss a game again.

Some great S60 phones: Nokia 6682, N80, N93 and E62. There are several more from manufacturers other than Nokia coming soon, more on those when I know that they’re coming to the US. Now the only thing holding back SlingPlayer Mobile is connectivity speeds, as you’ll need at least an EVDO speed connection (EVDO - think Fast DSL or Cable speed 400 - 800k speed) to get an optimal performance. And an S60 EVDO phone has yet to appear in the US. Sadly the aforementioned Nokia phones (in their US configurations) only have EDGE (about 80k speed), so the playback might be a bit jerky. But Cingular (Read more)

He who denies it owes it

by David Frame Follow me on Twitter    |    Thursday, October 19, 2006 (permalink)
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“A cell phone is a credit card with a built-in antenna” – Lance Frey, COO cell phone retailer Letstalk.com

My phone has been lost for 2 days now and I'm still in denial. Maybe I misplaced it... maybe someone will find it and call me...

Or maybe someone is running up huge bills that I will be on the hook for.

Amazingly, most wireless companies make it clear to their customers that THEY are accountable for all charges incurred until they notify the carrier that the phone has been lost or stolen. In fact, a few carriers recently pursued customers aggressively over charges that ranged from $4,000 to $26,000. What’s up with that? There oughta be a law… well, no thanks to Governor Schwarzenegger for we Californians, recent legislation intended to protect consumers from this type of situation was “Terminated”.

OK, I've fast forwarded from denial through anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance to... PANIC! What should I do next?

I recommend a few simple steps:

Don’t procrastinate- turn off your account.

If you’re pretty sure your phone has been lost or stolen, turn off your account. The inconvenience of not having your phone palls in comparison to the headache of paying for calls you didn’t make. To turn off your account, simply call your wireless carrier. If you find the phone, it’s easy to re-establish service.

Disable the phone.

If you own a GSM phone with a SIM card (typically this applies to customers of T-Mobile, Cingular, etc.) you can also take measures to disable the physical device. This is a nice feature if you’re worried about people accessing your address book or other information on the phone you’d like them not to have. Only one catch here – you need to have planned ahead. First, get your phone’s serial number by typing the following sequence into your phone: star-hash-zero-six-hash ( * # 0 6 # ). After you do this, a 15 digit code will appear on the screen. Write this down and store it in a safe place. Note that for Motorola IDEN units the steps are a little different. If you lose your phone, you can provide this information with the carrier and, with this, they actually can disable the phone. You might also find the serial number behind the battery, or on the paperwork you received when you bought the phone.

Dear Abby received a letter about a guy checking out his girlfriend's cell phone just a little too closely. Sadly, this isn't the first time I've heard of this kind of behavior and it's hardly a one-sided affair. Women also check out the intimate details stored on a man's cell phone. That doesn't make it right, it just means it happens.

I can easily equate it to reading someone's e-mail. Would you do that without their knowledge? Maybe you would, maybe you wouldn't. You don't really know what you'll do until a certain situation presents itself. Even worse, there's also the behavior of forwarding text and picture messages. Yes, people do this too. Makes you think twice before you send or save text messages on a cell phone.

If you think you might be susceptible to this type of situation, well you have more to think about than just guarding your cell phone. But there is something you can do. One simple step you can take is to lock your cell phone. Most cell phones have a keypad lock, if you have a candybar or slider phone you probably get a pop-up screen prompting this functionality whenever you finish a call. Some flip phones have this capability too and that feature can usually be found in either the Tools menu or System menu.

In November, Sprint will be adding the latest Motorola cell phones to their lineup, including the bestselling Motorola RAZR. Historically, customers have not been able to choose ANY Motorola phones for Sprint and only recently did Sprint add the low end Motorola C290 cell phone to their assortment. What this means is that existing Sprint customers who have been lusting after one of Motorola's sexy RAZR cell phones will soon have the opportunity to upgrade. For those who might have considered switching Sprint but have not done so because there wasn't a MOTORAZR, you'll soon have the choice and not be stuck choosing from similar cell phones like the Samsung A900 or the Sanyo Katana.

In addition to the Motorola RAZR, Sprint will also be adding the newly-released Motorola KRZR. Both of these Motorola cell phones for Sprint will be Power Vision phones, meaning you will be able to take advantage of Sprint's data features like Sprint TV, (Read more)

Where's my phone?

by David Frame Follow me on Twitter    |    Wednesday, October 18, 2006 (permalink)
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I've been rendered socially and functionally obsolescent.

I lost my cell phone in a cab in Vegas. Unlike credit cards, which are fairly easy to cancel and replace, cell phones require a complex and burdensome process of shutting down your cell phone account, replacing your phone and getting back up to speed with a new phone.

Today, I sit here a bit overwhelmed by a flood of questions and worries:

What’s my alibi for losing a phone in Vegas? (I’m sure my wife is imagining some 19 year old named Bambi walking around town with a nice, new Motorola Razr in her purse)!

What’s my financial risk? I just read a story about a wireless customer getting nailed by their carriers for a $26,000 bill – that’s a lot worse than a bad night at the craps tables!

Who do I call and how do I shut off service? I saw a new service that can turn your phone into a hideous, screaming beast, but I’d just be happy to get the darned thing shut down.

How do I recover from the loss of the 400 contacts I tediously “triple keyed” into my phone over the last 18 months?

What will I do next time to prevent this from happening again? Is my wife going to make me carry my cell phone strapped around my neck like my dad does with his bifocals? Should I buy handset insurance? Or just break out that old label-maker I used in 4th grade to protect my valuable GI Joe and Evil Knievel toys?

In my next few posts, I’ll share my journey with you and do my best to offer advice on what to do when you lose your cell phone. Wish me luck.

First times...

by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |    Wednesday, October 18, 2006 (permalink)
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This first blog is hard to write, but firsts are rarely easy. The first time you try to ride a bike. The first time you go out with someone new. The first time you call, text or e-mail someone you like. Hell, even the first time you try to master the intricacies of a new cell phone. It's all exciting; the anticipation; the reward in knowing you did something previously unknown. But it's the not knowing that's hard. Not knowing if you'll fall off the bike, though you probably will. Not knowing how a date will go. Not knowing if the person you like is interested in you too. Not knowing if that cell phone will work the way you expect. But that's life.

Whether we like it or not cell phones have changed the way we live, the way we do things, and even the way we communicate. That's what this blog is going to be about – how cell phones affect us. It'll even include some of the crazy things people do with phones or want to do to phones.