Pantech Reveal C790 – the Dual-keyboard Messaging Phone

AT&T has recently added the Pantech Reveal C790, a compact slider featuring both a numeric keypad and a QWERTY keyboard, to its lineup of messaging-friendly phones. As a 3G capable device, the Reveal supports access to AT&T’s array of broadband services, along with a full HTML browser, instant messaging, GPS, stereo Bluetooth and some preloaded applications.

Different from most side-slider messaging phones, the Pantech Reveal has a standard numeric keypad on the front, and glides up to uncover a full keyboard underneath. Both of them remain active at the same time, giving you quick access to both numbers and letters when messaging. The 2.2-inch LCD display above the keypad shows 320 x 240 pixels and 260K colors. It measures 3.9 by 2.35 by 0.58 inches and weighs 3.95 ounces.

Frequent texters will be pleased to find a wide range of messaging options on the Reveal. In addition to text, picture and video messaging, the phone offers access to instant messaging clients including AIM, Windows Live and Yahoo Messenger. Mobile email allows you to get emails from Yahoo, AOL, AIM, Windows Live, AT&T Yahoo and BellSouth accounts.

The Reveal sports with AT&T’s new HTML mobile browser based on Opera. Not only can you enjoy fast Internet surfing, you can also add bookmarks, perform location-aware searches and get the latest news headlines of sports, entertainment, finance and more.

Other than the browser, AT&T’s broad selection of multimedia services are onboard. It comes with AT&T Celluar Video for streaming video contents and AT&T Video Share calling for sharing pictures and video clips. You can purchase and download music from Napster Mobile and eMusic. The built-in media player supports a variety of audio files like MP3, AAC, AAC+ and WAV formats.

You will find a number of preloaded applications like AT&T Navigator for voice-guided turn-by-turn directions, Mobile Banking and My-Cast Weather. Its 256MB internal memory storage can be expanded by a microSD memory card up to 16GB. Other essentials include a 1.3-megapixel camera with 4x zoom, an address book with 1,000 contacts, speaker-independent voice commands, speakerphone and USB mass storage.

To sum up, the Pantech Reveal C790 is a well-designed, easy-to-use and compact phone. It is recommended for those who are looking for an inexpensive handset from a major carrier for quick and easy messaging.

Tags: Pantech Reveal / C790 Accessories, Up To 16GB microSD Memory Card, Bluetooth Headset, Pantech Reveal / C790 Cases, Holster For Pantech Reveal C790, Car Charger For Pantech Reveal C790, Lithium Battery For Pantech Reveal C790

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New Kind of Low-cost Cell Phone Microscope

An engineer at University of California, Los Angeles has found a way to convert a cell phone into a microscope capable of diagnosing diseases. The gadget, though reminiscent of CellScope developed by a team at UC Berkeley, is a much cheaper but accurate diagnostic tool using only $10 of off-the-shelf hardware and a cell phone, reports New York Times.

Professor Aydogan Ozcan, inventor of the cell phone microscope, has already formed a new company named Microskia to bring this technology to the market. The device is made to offer a simple and affordable solution to screening diseases for people living in remote places, where hospitals, health facilities and diagnostic laboratories are rare and faraway.

The cell phone add-on utilizes a phone’s sensor to analyze the content on a slide, such as blood sample, and transmits the information wirelessly to a hospital or regional health center for further evaluation. For example, the device can detect the asymmetric shape of diseased blood cells or other abnormal cells, or note an increase of white blood cells, which is a sign of infection. The system will be particularly useful in screening for illnesses such as malaria.

For cell phones that are not equipped with a camera, the company has also discovered various ways to make them perform the tasks without any lenses. For instance, a simple box with a sensing chip can be plugged into a handset or laptop with a USB cable, turning the mobile device into a microscope that detects diseases.

"Dr. Ozcan’s devices provide a simple solution to a complex problem," commented Ahmet Yildiz, an assistant professor at the UC Berkeley. "This is an inexpensive way to eliminate a microscope and sample biological images with a basic cell phone camera instead."

With its extremely low cost, high portability and quick disease-assessing ability, this gadget would clearly be beneficial to the global health care field. Meanwhile, it paves the way for other breakthroughs in the mobile industry in the future.

Tags: Cell Phone, Data Cables, iPhone Accessories, BlackBerry Accessories, Nokia Accessories, Samsung Accessories

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HTC Droid Eris – Takes Customization to a Whole New Level

Following the Motorola Droid, the HTC Droid Eris is now available as the second Google Android phone on Verizon Wireless. It combines Android features with HTC’s breakthrough Sense user interface, creating an individual mobile experience customized to suit your lifestyle.

You may think the Droid Eris looks familiar, because it is in fact a remodeled version of Sprint’s HTC Hero. They share the similar rounded-corner design and size, with the Droid Eris measuring 4.45" by 2.19" by 0.51" and weighing 4.23 ounces, making it a slim and compact device that easily slips into your pocket.

Its 3.2-inch 320x480-pixel capacitive touchscreen provides haptic feedback and works well with the trackball. With a built-in accelerometer, the screen orientation will change automatically when you rotate the phone to use its full QWERTY keyboard. Light and proximity sensors are embedded as well.

As mentioned, the Android phone is integrated with the Sense interface. Users can customize a seven-panel home screen with widgets and shortcuts such as Facebook status updates and photos. Besides, you can change the theme using the Scenes feature, which allows you to personalize the phone to match your work, play and travel life.

Like other Android 1.5 handsets, the Droid Eris is loaded with a lot of Google services, such as Google Maps, Google Search with voice, Google Calendar, Google Talk and Gmail. More goodies like Google Navigation will be available when the 1.6 and 2.0 versions arrive. Of course, you can always find a wide selection of additional applications and programs on the rapidly-growing Android Market.

As for messaging and email, the Droid Eris supports Office Outlook Mobile and Microsoft Exchange with Direct Push email delivery. Apart from Gmail, users can access corporate and personal POP3 email accounts like Hotmail and Yahoo. With QuickOffice and a PDF viewer, the phone lets you attach and view a variety of file types. You will also find SMS, MMS and instant messaging (IM) onboard.

Moreover, its full HTML browser with Wi-Fi displays flash-based sites and supports multiple windows and visual bookmarks. Its multi-touch capability gives you a better Internet surfing experience, as you can pinch to zoom in and out of Web pages or images, or flick to scroll.

Aside from the above-mentioned, the Droid Eris comes with plenty of entertainment and functional features: a music player, a 5-megapixel auto-focus camera/camcorder, a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack, integrated GPS, a digital compass, Bluetooth 2.0, Smart dialer, visual voice mail, USB mass storage and more. It has a microSD card slot supporting up to 16GB while offering 512MB internal memory.

Offering an array of attractive features, an intuitive interface and a slim design all at a bargain price, the HTC Droid Eris is a respectable Android device that can be considered as a nice alternative to the Motorola Droid.

Tags: HTC Droid Eris Accessories, Up To 16GB microSD Memory Card, Bluetooth Headset, Bluetooth Cell Phone Car Kit, HTC Droid Eris Headsets, Car Charger For HTC Droid Eris, Retractable Travel Charger For HTC Droid Eris

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Majority of Students Favor Downloading Music over Streaming

With the emergence and growing popularity of music streaming sites, it seems the industry has a bright future ahead or even is pointing to success. But is streaming music what everyone wants? A new survey reveals the younger generation may not feel the same way.

The survey, conducted by the University of Reading on 10,000 university students, shows that 75% of them would not pay for music streaming service or buy hard copies in stores. Instead, they would rather buy and download songs from sites such as iTunes and Amazon MP3 Store to their hard drives or MP3 players. The poll reveals that popular streaming sites like Spotify, LastFM and Pandora, where you get unlimited access to music for a nominal monthly fee, though attractive, may not be as appealing to the youth as we thought.

This is in fact not hard to understand – some people prefer music download simply because they want to "own" their music. Music streaming, like renting from a music store, does not give you the kind of semi-tangible goods that downloading provides. Besides, with storage capacity found on devices or removable memory cards reaching 32GB, people can now save numerous audio files on their smartphones and music players like never before.

To meet the growing demand for music download, a new music site called TunesPro.com, launched three months ago, has already slashed its prices to compete with iTunes.

"Currently we charge 19c per song and offer a further 10% when a whole album is purchased. We believe this will attract the younger users away from iTunes, which charge almost 6 times more than we do," said a spokesman for TunesPro.

If you are one of those who prefer these music downloading sites, other than using an additional memory card to make sure you have enough storage capacity, you may also use a USB cable to transfer music to your PC. To enjoy them on your handset on the go, handsfrees, Bluetooth headsets or headphones are indispensable accessories you don’t want to miss.

Tags: Memory Card, MicroSD (TransFlash) Memory Card, Bluetooth, Cellular Handsfree, Data Cables, MP3 / Apple Ipod Accessory

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LG Chocolate Touch VX8575 – the Stylish Multimedia Phone for Mobile Music

Verizon Wireless has released the LG Chocolate Touch VX8575, a touchscreen multimedia phone that belongs to the popular LG Chocolate family. Combined with Dolby Mobile sound, a vibrant and responsive screen, a 3.2-megapixel camera and quick access to social networking sites, the new Chocolate is geared towards Verizon customers who enjoy playing music on the go.

Dominating the front is a 3.0-inch resistive touchscreen display with 262,000-color support and 400x240-pixel resolution, which makes a great match with the shiny mirror finish on the back. The phone is slim and fairly lightweight by measuring 4.30 by 2.20 by 0.47 inches and weighing 4.23 ounces.

The highlight of the Chocolate Touch is its music features. The native music player lets you sync music with your PC using V CAST Music with Rhapsody. The player works with the Dolby Mobile equalizer for you to tweat music manually or with the five presets. You can use other functions of the phone while listening to music with the player running in the background.

A number of additional music-related features can be found on the handset. "Rhythmical Beat" makes the phone vibrate along to the song. The song ID program analyzes a song played on the radio and displays its information. The fun "Join the Band" application lets you tap along to music on a virtual piano or drum kit. Additionally, there is a FM radio tuner with 12 preset tunes.

The Chocolate Touch also provides great messaging and email functions. You can sync your email and calendar through RemoSnyc, and use the mobile Web email for access to popular email services such as Hotmail and Yahoo Mail. Threaded text and multimedia messaging, voice messaging and instant messaging are supported. Text typing is easy using the full QWERTY keyboard in landscape mode, the nine-key alphanumeric keypad or the handwriting recognition tool.

As for Internet surfing, the Chocolate Touch boasts a full HTML browser with Microsoft Bing search function. You can update your status or photo on various social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook by tapping the convenient social network shortcut key. More Verizon applications, like the GPS-based VZ Navigator and V Cast Video for streaming content, are preloaded as well.

Also offered by the phone are a 3.2-megapixel camera/camcorder, a 3.5mm audio jack, a 1,000-entry phone book, Bluetooth 2.1, USB mass storage, a built-in accelerometer and voice command dialing. The phone includes 1GB internal memory and accommodates a microSD memory card up to 16GB.

Overall, the LG Chocolate Touch is a nice update of the series that is built upon the previous models’ strengths in music functionality. If you think music is a must-have feature on your phone, you will probably want to give the Chocolate Touch a try.

Tags: LG Chocolate TOUCH (VX8575) Accessories, Up To 16GB microSD Memory Card, Bluetooth Headset, Bluetooth Cell Phone Car Kit, LG Chocolate Touch VX8575 Headsets, LG Chocolate TOUCH VX8575 Cases, Car Charger For LG Chocolate Touch VX8575

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Text Messaging Sees Massive Growth – Good or Bad?

You may have already known how much Americans love text messaging considering the number of messaging devices flooded into the mobile industry. But the actual figure still caught our attention when it come out – 4.1 billion texts are sent by Americans everyday!

CTIA – the Wireless Association, recently released the results of its semi-annual study of the wireless industry, which found that a total of 740 billion SMS messages were sent in the U.S. for the first half of 2009. To break down the figures, it means American wireless subscribers send 4.1 billion messages per day, which is nearly twice as many as the number a year ago.

Meanwhile, the study shows that U.S. cell phone users are sending more multimedia messages (including picture, voice and video messages) with their mobile devices. For the first six months of the year, 10.3 billion MMS messages were created, significantly up from 4.7 billion during the same period in 2008.

The year-over-year boom of text messages explains why handset vendors keep on rolling out keyboard-equipped handsets, despite the fact that this segment is already crowded with many messaging-centric devices. For example, Samsung has recently strengthened its lineup with the Flight and the Moment; Motorola has introduced two Android-powered sliders, the DROID and the CLIQ; and HTC has brought us the Touch Pro2 and the Tilt 2. Other messaging phones like Pantech Reveal, Verizon Razzle and Nokia Twist are also new rivals in the bunch.

Teens and college students are probably thrilled with the arrival of these new devices as they tend to text more than other age groups. Nevertheless, recent research by ergonomists reveals that heavy texting may put the younger generation at risk. It is suggested that since texting requires our body to be positioned in a specific way – stationary shoulders and back with rapidly moving fingers – the more we text, the much more pain we will have in our necks and shoulders.

Even though this is a preliminary research, heavy texters may want to take note and consider using more voice calls instead. After all, that is why cell phones were made in the first place!

Tags: Samsung Accessories, Motorola Accessories, HTC Accessories, Nokia Accessories, Pantech Accessories, Verizon Wireless Accessories

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Samsung Moment SPH-m900 – the Touchscreen Side-Slider from Sprint

The Samsung Moment SPH-m900, an Android-based touchscreen slider, is the first handset equipped with an AMOLED display offered by Sprint. Other than its brilliant display, the Moment integrates a physical keyboard, plenty of Android’s offerings and Sprint’s media services, which all add up to a fairly solid and capable handset.

What makes the Moment special is its 3.2-inch 320x480-pixel display, which uses the AMOLED technology to offer bright and vivid imagery. Below the screen is an OK button that doubles as an optical mouse for you to move the cursor simply by swiping your finger. The phone features a proximity sensor and an accelerometer, which means you can turn it sideways to view in landscape mode. You can type with the slide-out QWERTY keyboard or the virtual keyboard with the phone closed. It measures 4.6 by 2.34 by 0.63 inches and weighs 5.67 ounces.

The Moment offers a wide range of email options. Aside from Gmail and POP/IMAP email support, it also gives you easy access to personal and corporate email accounts through Microsoft ActiveSync. For instant messaging, there is a preloaded client for Google Gtalk, AIM, MSN and Yahoo. It also offers text and picture messaging and you can view them in threaded conversations.

Running on Android 1.5, the Moment integrates Google Maps with Google Latitude, bringing you directions, standard map view, satellite imagery and street view. Additionally, Sprint Navigation provides voice-guided turn-by-turn directions, 3D moving maps and recommended routes. Google voice search is onboard and, of course, you can find many more applications on the Android Market.

Music lovers will like its built-in music player that works with the 3.5mm headphone jack. More songs can be purchased from the Amazon MP3 Store. For video contents, besides the pre-installed YouTube app, the Moment offers Sprint TV with live and on-demand programming, Sprint Movies, NFL Mobile Live and NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile. Sprint Radio is preloaded as well.

The Moment sports with a full HTML web browser, giving you easy access to news headlines, weather reports and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. You can add bookmarks and browse in landscape mode. In addition, the device comes equipped with a 3.2-megapixel auto-focus camera with flash, digital zoom, which also works as a camcorder.

Beyond the above-mentioned, the Moment features stereo Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi, USB mass storage, visual voice mail, speaker-independent voice dialing and 250MB of on-board storage. You can expand the memory with a microSD card up to 32GB.

Despite its relatively bulky form factor, the Samsung Moment takes the advantage of its vivid screen and makes a good combination with Sprint and Google services. Overall, it is quite a decent device that belongs to the top bunch of Sprint’s lineup.

Tags: Samsung Moment (SPH-m900) Accessories, Up To 16GB microSD Memory Card, Bluetooth Headset, Bluetooth Cell Phone Car Kit, Car Charger For Samsung Moment SPH-m900, Retractable Travel Charger For Samsung Moment SPH-m900, USB Data Cable For Samsung Moment SPH-m900

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Samsung Flight SGH-a797 – Lets You Switch between Touch and Type

Released for AT&T, the Samsung Flight SGH-a797 is a hybrid messaging-focused phone that sports with both a touchscreen and a vertical QWERTY keyboard. While satisfying both your needs for frequent web browsing and high-speed texting, the Flight also offers a user-friendly design and a set of functional and multimedia features, making it appealing to a mass of consumers.

The Flight has a 2.8-inch touchscreen supporting 260k colors and a 242x320-pixel resolution, which is quite small compared with other touchscreen devices, but there is a widget tool bar on the screen to make your favorite applications, programs and community sites with just one touch away.

Boasting AT&T’s full HTML Opera web browser, the Flight gives users a unique three-window approach to surf the Internet. The first page is a homescreen where users can add bookmarks and enter URLs; The second page gives you local information such as restaurants, gas stations, maps and driving directions; and the last page delivers more global information like top headlines and entertainment news from various sites.

Using the slide-down QWERTY keyboard, text and multimedia messaging, instant messaging and typing emails are fast and easy. You can choose to use the virtual numeric keypad or the handwriting recognition feature as well. Email options found on the device are limited to AT&T Mobile Email, which offers access to POP3 services including AIM, AOL, Gmail, Windows Live and Yahoo.

In addition, its built-in music player supports MP3, AAC, eAAC+, WMA and more file formats. Equipped with AT&T’s 3G connectivity, the Flight gives users the full set of the carrier’s multimedia services, including AT&T Mobile Music for wireless song download and Cellular Video for streaming-video content. Other music-related features like XM Radio and a Billboard Mobile channel are also onboard. Apart from multimedia services, the GPS functionality supports access to AT&T Navigator for turn-by-turn directions and traffic mapping.

Other features brought by the Flight include a 2-megapixel camera/camcorder with digital zoom, stereo Bluetooth, a 2,000-entry phone book, voice dialing and USB mass storage. It holds only 80MB of internal memory, but you can expand the storage up to 16GB via the microSD memory card slot. Comes in red and gray, the phone measures 4.17" by 2.2" by 0.5" and weighs 4.8 ounces.

Although the Samsung Flight a797 is not a smartphone, it is able to bring a likable design and some advanced features at an affordable price. The combo of a touchscreen and a keyboard makes it a desirable phone that will bring a lot of fun to your social life.

Tags: Samsung Flight / SGH-a797, Up To 16GB microSD Memory Card, Bluetooth Headset, Stylus For Samsung Touch-Screen Phone, Car Charger For Samsung Flight a797, Lithium Battery For Samsung Flight a797, USB Data Cable For Samsung Flight a797

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Global Smartphone Market Overview

Even though the global cell phone market remained stagnant for the third quarter of 2009, the smartphone segment continues to show strong year-over-year growth, according to a new research released by Gartner.

During the past quarter, a total of 308.9 million mobile handsets were shipped worldwide, representing a minimal increase of 0.1 percent from the same period last year. In the meantime, smartphone sales show a healthy surge of 12.8 percent with more than 41 million units sold, making smartphones the fastest-growing category within the whole industry.

Apple and Research In Motion are believed to be the driving force behind the upward movement, as both companies enjoyed nearly 50 percent year-on-year growth in unit sales. RIM, the no.2 smartphone maker, increased its smartphone market share significantly from 15.9 percent to 20.8 percent, posting its highest share yet. Following behind RIM, Apple also continues to gain momentum. With 7 million iPhone devices sold in the last quarter, the company’s smartphone market share has jumped from 12.9 percent to 17.1 percent.

Nokia is still the market leader with a 39.3 percent share of the market in Q3 2009, but its outlook is not very optimistic considering the drop from its 42.3 percent share in the year-ago quarter. HTC, the fourth, rose from 4.5 percent to 6.5 percent, while Samsung, the fifth, was up from 3 percent to 3.2 percent.

On the other hand, the research firm notes that for the rest of the year, it is important for handset manufacturers to "offer products with the features that consumers and operators are demanding most strongly". These features, like touchscreens, focus on user interface, applications and content ecosystems, are believed to be those that could bring advantages over other vendors while the smartphone market continues to mature.

As many new devices, including several Android smartphones, have arrived in time for the approaching holiday season, Gartner expects sales in the fourth quarter to show growth over last year’s figure. In other words, the global smartphone market shares of handset vendors are still prone to variations for the rest of the year.

Tags: iPhone Accessories, BlackBerry Accessories, Nokia Accessories, HTC Accessories, Samsung Accessories, LG Accessories, Motorola Accessories

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Nokia Recalls 14 Million Faulty Cell Phone Chargers

Handset maker Nokia issued a global recall for approximately 14 million cell phone chargers after a potential quality issue was identified during a routine quality inspection. These faulty chargers, manufactured by one of its third-party suppliers, would be replaced without any extra cost.

According to the Finnish giant, the plastic covers of the affected chargers could come loose, exposing the charger’s internal circuits. If the components are accidentally touched when the charger is in use, it could pose an electrical shock hazard. While no incidents or injuries have been reported so far, Nokia advised owners of these potentially dangerous chargers to stop using them and ask for a free replacement as soon as possible.

The chargers concerned were manufactured by BYD Electronic Company of China. Only 2-pin chargers of certain models are involved in the replacement program. They are the AC-3E and AC-3U models made between June 15 and August 9, 2009, as well as the AC-4U model made between April 12 and October 25, 2009.

The AC-3E chargers were shipped to the European market, while the other two were sold to North and Latin America. Britain, China, Brazil, Argentina and some other countries are not affected. These three charger models are compatible with a wide range of Nokia phones, ranging from its low-end 2600 Classic handset to its pricier E71x and N95 devices.

Nokia added that BYD, maker of the chargers, would be responsible for covering the whole cost of the replacement service.

The company has established a dedicated website for users to check if their chargers should be exchanged. Customers can visit http://chargerexchange.nokia.com/ or their local Nokia site for more information.

This is not the first time Nokia had a quality issue with the cell phone accessories. In 2007, the company offered massive replacement service encompassing more than 46 million cell phone batteries made by Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. Ltd due to a risk of overheating.

In the light of these potential risks, our batteries, AC/travel chargers and car chargers are designed to prevent overcharging and short circuit, ensuring high performance and safety for charging your cell phone.

Tags: Nokia Charger, Nokia N95 Chargers, Nokia Surge (6790) Chargers, Nokia 5800 Chargers, Nokia E61i Chargers, Nokia E71x Chargers, Nokia Car Charger

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Keep Your Cell Phone Safe During the Holiday Seasons

To many people, the countdown to Thanksgiving Day means the holiday seasons are coming and it is time for crazy holiday shopping. However, you probably don’t want to go crazy by realizing your cell phone is not where it is supposed to be. As a matter of fact, the holiday seasons are the time of the year when most busy shoppers left their cell phones in the taxis.

This is according to a recent study conducted by Credant Technologies on New York taxi drivers. The study found that every month, New Yorkers left 5,000 cell phones in cabs on average, plus more than 500 other handheld devices, including iPods, laptops and . The number is especially high during holidays as people often rush in and out of the cabs with their hands full of gifts that they simply forget their precious possessions.

Losing your phone can be a really big deal, especially with the rise of smartphones, more and more people are using to store not only their contacts, messages and photos, but also sensitive personal and business information. If your phone is fallen into the wrong hands like hackers and identity thieves, your information may be stolen for illegal practice.

That is why Credant Technologies suggests encrypting your data or protecting them with a password, especially if you are a frequent traveler. In that case, even if your device is picked up by someone, your data still can not be accessed.

Of course, the best way to protect your data is never lose your cell phone. There are many accessories on the market that can help preventing your handset from going missing in transit. Holsters and belt clips allow you to attach your phone on a belt or a bag strap; snap-on covers with swivel clips protect your phone body while keeping it close at hand; and lanyards hang your device around your neck. You can also easily find a variety of cases such carrying pouches and hanging pouches that offer similar functions.

Make sure your cell phone is safe right by your side, and you can enjoy your holidays with no worry.

Tags: Belt Clip / Holster, Snap-on Covers, Phone Straps, Cellular Case, USB Flash Memory, Silicon Skin Case

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Cell Phone Accessories Market on Sluggish but Steady Recovery

According to a recently published report from marketing research firm ABI Research, the market of cell phone accessories is set to reach approximately $55 billion by the end of 2009. Despite the fact that the figure is slightly down from last year’s figure, the decline is smaller than expected, indicating that the market is improving slowly but steadily following the economy recovery.

The global cell phone accessories market is composed of phone chargers, batteries, Bluetooth headsets, handsfrees, car kits, data cables, carrying cases and other add-on items. Among these categories, the memory card segment is particularly facing challenges.

As pointed out by industry analyst Michael Morgan, the memory card market has been oversupplied and the selling prices are only a little higher than the production cost. Whereas consumers certainly welcome the low prices, this also means memory card vendors have to suffer from low profit margins. However, it seems this condition is starting to change.

"While it’s always dangerous trying to call the bottom of a market, very recently it has begun to look as if memory card prices are stabilizing and even starting to rise slightly," said the analyst.

Another development in the memory card market that benefits consumers is the increase in capacity of cards that ship with newly purchased handsets. While 512MB or 1GB cards are commonly found as in-the-box items, lately more phones are packed with 8GB cards. To increase the cards’ value to consumers, some vendors are even pre-loading various contents on the cards, such as music files, games and software.

Given the multimedia capabilities of today’s handsets, there are also memory cards with higher capacity available, like those microSDHC memory cards with 16GB or 32GB storage.

Looking ahead as a whole, Morgan said the growth of the handset accessory market would remain somewhat sluggish in 2010. However, the market value is expected to overtake the 2008 figure in 2011 and resume its strong upward movement afterwards.

Tags: Bluetooth, Memory Card, Car Charger, Cellular Charger, Cellular Handsfree, Data Cables, Silicon Skin Case

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Motorola DROID (Verizon) – the Ultimate Powerhouse for Everything

Touted as another "iPhone killer", the Motorola DROID is an impressive Android-powered smartphone released for Verizon Wireless. It fully embraces the benefits of the open platform by offering users a stunning display, an enhanced interface, integrated messaging management plus loads of Google services, making it a highly competitive rival against other touchscreen devices on the market.

The DROID is a touchscreen slider featuring a large 3.7-inch high-resolution display on the front, which explains its big size (4.6" H x 2.4" W x 0.5" D) and heavy weight (6 ounces). There are three home screens that you can customize with widgets and integrate with Facebook and Twitter for status updates. Using either the virtual keyboard with haptic feedback or the slide-out full QWERTY keyboard, typing messages is smooth and easy.

One of the flagship features Android 2.0 brings to the DROID is the Microsoft Exchange synchronization for email, calendar and contacts, as well as other POP3 and IMAP email accounts. Both Gmail and Exchange emails offer push delivery to your inbox. As a Google phone, it supports Google Talk for instant messaging. Of course, you can always find other IM and Twitter apps on the Android Market.

Another enhancement is the Web browser. Not only does it support HTML5, it is also ready for Flash Player 10.1 (available in 2010). The improved browser allows users to add visual bookmarks and toggle between multiple windows, giving you a PC-like browsing experience.

The Droid excels in its GPS and location services as well. The new Google Maps Navigation app (BETA) offers a lot more than text-based instructions. With Google Maps with Street View and Latitude, you can get voice-guided turn-by-turn directions, satellite imagery, geographic information on map and high-resolution photos of the streets. Furthermore, you will find other Google services such as Google Quick Search Box, Google Search By Voice, and Android Market for downloading free and paid apps.

As for the multimedia functions, the Droid features a built-in media player that is very similar to those found on Android devices. It supports a wide range of file formats, including MP3, AAC, MPEG-4, WAV, WMA and MIDI. You can stream video contents on the YouTube app and download songs via Amazon MP3 Store. The phone also sports with a 5-megapixel camera with dual LED flash, 4x zoom, auto-focus and DVD-quality video recording capabilities.

Applications can be stored in the phone’s integrated memory of 512MB ROM and 256MB RAM, while media files can be saved in a removable microSD card up to 32GB. Other indispensable elements include text and multimedia messaging, Wi-Fi, stereo Bluetooth, USB mass storage, visual voice mail, speaker-independent voice dialing and a standard 3.5mm audio jack.

The Motorola Droid is a powerhouse for communication, entertainment and location services. Incorporated with a sleek design, a gorgeous screen, Google's services and Android's expanding marketplace, it is definitely the most advanced and powerful device on Verizon’s fast network to date.

Tags: Motorola DROID Accessories, Up To 16GB microSD Memory Card, Bluetooth Headset, Bluetooth Cell Phone Car Kit, Motorola DROID Headsets, Motorola DROID Cases, Travel Charger For Motorola DROID

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Nokia 5800 XpressMusic – A Touchscreen Phone for Music Lovers

Compatible with GSM carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is a touchscreen multimedia phone that belongs to its XpressMusic series. As the manufacturer’s first touchscreen device based on the Symbian S60 platform, the 3G 5800 brings a sleek design, a touch-optimized user interface, a full set of music and entertainment features and many more to Nokia followers.

Dominating the device is a 3.2-inch 360x640-pixel touchscreen display that shows 16 million colors at a 16:9 aspect ratio. It offers tactile feedback and is equipped with an automatic orientation sensor for display rotation. Above the screen, there is a dedicated Media Bar touch key for access to various multimedia features, such as music, video and web browser. Measuring 4.37 by 2.04 by 0.61 inches and weighing 3.84 ounces, the 5800 is quite compact and lightweight as a touchscreen phone.

Emphasizing music and multimedia playback, the Nokia 5800 boasts the Nseries digital music player with a 8-band graphic equalizer, supporting MP3, SpMidi, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ and WMA audio formats. It includes stereo speakers with surround sound, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a stereo FM radio. Moreover, the phone is preloaded with RealPlayer and a video editor.

The 5800 sports with a built-in 3.2-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, dual LED flash, auto-focus, 3x digital zoom and geotagging. With a single touch, photos and videos can be taken and shared via Share on Ovi or websites like Facebook or Flickr.

For messaging, in addition to SMS and MMS, the 5800 offers instant messaging clients and supports IMAP, POP and SMTP protocols for accessing your email accounts. You can choose from several ways for text entry - a full or mini QWERTY keyboard, an alphanumeric keypad or a handwriting recognition tool.

The full HTML web browser has Flash 9 support and works with the accelerometer for either landscape or portrait orientation. Other advanced features include speaker-independent voice commands, Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi network, plus GPS support with access to Nokia Maps. Internal memory only amounts to 81MB, but you can expand the storage capacity with a microSD card up to 16GB.

With an attractive design and a bunch of strong music and entertainment features, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is certainly an impressive multimedia device that gives you the greatest music experience.

Tags: Up To 16GB microSD Memory Card, Bluetooth Headset, Bluetooth Cell Phone Car Kit, Touch Stylus Pen, Nokia 5800 Cases, Nokia 5800 Car Chargers, Nokia 5800 Chargers

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Cell Phone Use Leads to More Diversified Social Network

There is a general belief that people are becoming more isolated as a result of advanced technologies, like cell phones and the Internet, because they limit the social diversity of relationships. However, a recent study reveals that this is not true – in fact, these technologies can even help you build a larger and more diversified social network.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project study surveyed 2,512 adults in the summer of 2008. Surprisingly, it is found that even though we are spending more time in front of screens nowadays, this growing embrace of mobile technology does not come at the expense of real-life relationships. Instead, it increases a person’s social interaction and maximizes exposure to a wider variety of races and nationalities.

According to the report, the diversity of a person’s core network, which comprises the closest and most significant confidants, tends to be 25 percent larger for cell phone users.

"It turns out that those who use the Internet and mobile phones have notable social advantages. People use the technology to stay in touch and share information in ways that keep them socially active and connected to their communities," said Professor Keith Hampton, the lead author of the report.

On average, an American has contact with close friends and family on 195 days a year by cell phone; on 125 days by landline phone; on 125 days via text messaging; on 72 days by email; and on 55 days via instant messaging. This shows that cellular phones are playing important roles in daily communication among Americans, which even prevail over the use of traditional landline phones.

Furthermore, the report said that the use of popular social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn, helps expanding the diversity of personal network by providing an outlet for "discussion networks that are more likely to contain people from different backgrounds".

With the rise of these online activities, keyboard-equipped messaging and social networking phones from vendors like Nokia, Samsung, LG, HTC and Motorola are very likely to continue their high-profile popularity among cell phone users.

Tags: Motorola CLIQ Accessories, HTC Tilt 2 Accessories, Samsung Rogue (SCH-u960) Accessories, Samsung Messager II (SCH-r560) Accessories, LG Xenon (GR500) Accessories, Nokia Surge (6790) Accessories

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Motorola Posts Small Q3 Profit; Future Smartphones Mostly Android

Motorola has reported an unexpected third-quarter quarterly profit for the year mainly as a result of its aggressive cost cutting. However, the manufacturer is still struggling in its mobile phone division with continuously declining sales.

Motorola posted a profit of $12 million for the three-month quarter ended October 3, compared with the $397 million loss in the same quarter a year ago. This was the second straight quarter of earnings after months of heavy losses.

The company’s performance as a whole has been improving, but its mobile device unit is not looking good. For the third quarter, although it managed to narrow its operating loss from $840 million to $183 million, cell phone sales only totaled $1.7 billion, significantly down 46 percent from the year-ago quarter. 13.6 million handsets were shipped during the period, compared with 14.8 million in Q2 and 25.4 million a year ago. Given that Sony Ericsson has sold 14.1 million devices, Motorola is now probably the fifth handset maker in the world with less than 5 percent of global market share.

While its cell phone share continues to shrink, the company is pinning its faith on new smartphones powered by Google’s Android operating system. Two of them, the Motorola CLIQ from T-Mobile USA and the Motorola DROID from Verizon Wireless, have arrived on the U.S. market to meet the coming holiday season demand.

"The introductions of our new products powered by Android are important milestones as we begin to address the mobilization of the Internet and the growing demand for modern smartphones," said Motorola’s co-CEO Sanjay Jha in a statement. "Next year, we will continue to expand our smartphone portfolio and deliver improved financial results."

Jha also added Motorola plans to release more than twenty new smartphones in 2010, with a majority of them running the Android software. Despite its historical support of Windows Mobile and other enterprise phones, the company will put more focus on developing handsets targeting at consumers, prosumers and social messaging users. As these market categories are growing much faster than the corporate market, it seems that this time Motorola is on the right track to turn its fortune around.

Tags: Motorola Accessories, Motorola DROID Accessories, Motorola CLIQ Accessories, Sony Ericsson Accessories, T-Mobile Accessories, Verizon Wireless Accessories

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BlackBerry Storm2 9550 – the Sophisticated Touchscreen Phone for Business

Improved over the original, the BlackBerry Storm2 9550 is RIM’s second-generation touchscreen smartphone released for Verizon Wireless. While offering the equally powerful email and messaging features, the Storm2 brings users a number of significant enhancements, such as the updated BlackBerry OS, a better touch interface and Wi-Fi access.

The strengths of the Storm2 begin with its enhanced screen display. The 3.25-inch 480x360-pixel capacitive touchscreen with 65k colors is equipped with the next-generation SurePress technology. It now not only allows for key rollover and faster typing but also multi-touch, meaning you can touch more than one part of the screen at once to select multiple items. Like before, there is a QWERTY keyboard in portrait or landscape mode depending on the phone’s orientation. In addition, it sports with a proximity sensor to prevent accidental clicks when you are taking calls.

The messaging capabilities are as impressive as usual. The Storm2 allows access up to ten POP3 or IMAP email accounts. With BlackBerry Enterprise Server supporting Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino or Novell GroupWise, it provides real-time corporate email delivery to enterprise users. Using the Blackberry Desktop Manager, synchronizing mails and messages on your smartphone with your PC or Mac. Moreover, DataViz Documents To Go is pre-installed for viewing and editing Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.

For instant messaging, other than BlackBerry Messenger, the new Storm is preloaded with IM clients for AIM, Windows Live, Yahoo, Google Talk and ICQ. Text messaging in threaded view and multimedia messaging are onboard.

Another improvement the BlackBerry OS 5.0 brings to the device is its HTML browser. Apart from speed upgrade, the browser also allows real-time streaming protocol for you to stream videos from popular sites like YouTube, though it still lacks Flash support.

The Storm2 features a number of applications itself and you can find more from BlackBerry App World. For GPS navigation, you will get BlackBerry Maps with text-based turn-by-turn instructions and Verizon’s VZ Navigator with voice-guided directions. There are also download links for popular social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace and Flickr.

The Storm2 sports with a media player that supports an array of audio and video formats, such as MP3, AAC, WMA, MPEG4 and WMV. Using BlackBerry Media Sync, you can easily sync the Storm2 with iTune and Windows Media Player. The built-in 3.2-megapixel camera comes with LED flash, auto-focus, variable zoom and video recording capabilities.

As for the form factor, the Storm2 looks much alike its predecessor, measuring 4.43 by 2.45 by 0.55 inches and weighing 5.64 ounces. It includes 2GB of onboard memory and a microSD memory card slot that accepts up to 32GB. Other advanced features like dual-model functionality, 3G support, Wi-Fi connectivity, Bluetooth 2.1, voice-activated dialing and a 3.5mm headphone jack are also offered.

The BlackBerry Storm2 9550 makes great strides by improving its system, screen display as well as core functions. If you are a business professional who loves touchscreen devices, you will definitely be delighted to lay your hands on the Storm2.

Tags: BlackBerry Storm2 9550 Accessories, Up To 16GB microSD Memory Card, Bluetooth Headset, BlackBerry Storm2 9550 Headsets, BlackBerry Storm2 9550 Cases, Holster For BlackBerry Storm2 9550, Car Charger For BlackBerry Storm2 9550

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Touchscreen Devices on the Rise

Thanks to iPhone, touchscreen cell phone adoption in the U.S. is swelling at such a rapid rate over the past year. Its growth rate has significantly surpassed that of the overall smartphone market, reports comScore.

Based on a study released by the market research company, the number of people who own touchscreen based devices in the U.S. has skyrocketed by 159 percent between August 2008 and 2009, up from 9.2 million to 23.8 million users. By comparison, the adoption of smartphones also saw a 63 percent jump, translating into 33.7 million users by August 2009. The figures reveal that consumers are increasingly embracing touchscreen interfaces to navigate in a more intuitive and easy-to-use way.

Unsurprisingly, the Apple iPhone was the one who set the trend in the industry for touchscreen devices. By making up nearly one-third (32.9 percent) of all touch-sensitive phones owned by users aged 13 and older, the iPhone ranked as the top and is far ahead of other handsets.

The LG Dare and the LG Voyager took the distant second and third places, accounting for 8.7 percent and 7.8 percent of the market respectively. The BlackBerry Storm followed behind with 7.0 percent, while Palm Treo captured 6.5 percent. Other devices that made the top-ten list are Samsung Instinct, T-Mobile G1, HTC Touch, Samsung Glyde and LG Xenon.

Another worth mentioning fact is that touchscreen handsets are more popular among younger users. According to ComScore, owners of touchscreen devices represent more than half of all mobile subscribers. It is also found that 20.6 percent of touchscreen users range in age between 18 and 24, while only less than 5 percent are 65 and older.

Looking ahead, with more new touchscreen-centric handsets, particularly those running the Android operating system, flooding into the mobile marketplace, competition will continue to heat up and we can expect to see an even higher adoption rate in the near future.

Tags: iPhone Accessories, LG Accessories, BlackBerry Accessories, Palm Treo Accessories, Samsung Accessories, T-Mobile Accessories, HTC Accessories

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Motorola V860 Barrage – the Rugged Push-to-talk Clamshell Handset

Currently available from Verizon Wireless, the Motorola V860 Barrage is a solid clamshell phone that brings out its best even under extreme environments. By integrating Motorola’s push-to-talk (PTT) technology and a set of functional elements into a rugged form factor, it guarantees Verizon customers both durability and versatility.

The highlight of the Barrage is no doubt its push-to-talk function, as it is one of the few Motorola handsets to offer PTT outside Nextel’s network. By pressing the dedicated PTT button, you can turn the phone into a walkie-talkie and make group calling instantly.

The flip phone sports with a dual-screen design. While the 2.2-inch internal display supports 65k colors and 176x200 pixels, the external one measures 1.6 inches and shows 65k colors. The latter one works with the touch-sensitive music controls underneath for accessing the music player. Playable formats include AAC, MP3, MPEG-4, WAV, WMA, WMV and more.

As for messaging features, apart from SMS, MMS and instant messaging, its Mobile Email connects to services like Yahoo, MSN Hotmail, AOL and Windows Live. You can attach video clips to multimedia messages after shooting with the 2.0-megapixel camera and camcorder, which has 8x digital zoom and brightness adjustment capabilities but no flash.

In addition, the Barrage supports Verizon’s full range of 3G services, including V CAST Video on Demand and V CAST Music with Rhapsody. The phone is also preloaded with GPS-based VZ Navigator and the Bing search application. Other useful functions include stereo Bluetooth, WAP 2.0 Web browsing, USB mass storage, PC syncing, voice commands, a 2.5mm jack and a 1,000-entry phone book. It offers 125MB of user memory and accepts an external microSD card up to 16GB.

The Barrage has a solid and sturdy construction, which is tested to resist shock, drop, vibration, solar radiation, extreme temperatures and other tough conditions. Its waterproof quality even allows it to survive when submerged in water. It may be a little bit big by measuring 2.09 by 3.78 by 0.96 inches, but is still portable at 4.2 ounces.

In general, the Motorola V860 Barrage is an affordable, functional and most importantly, solid media phone that not only matches your toughness, and also helps you get through unfavorable situations.

Tags: Motorola Barrage V860 Accessories, Up To 16GB microSD Memory Card, Bluetooth Headset, Motorola Handsfrees, Motorola Barrage V860 Cases, Car Charger For Motorola Barrage V860

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Samsung’s Strong Handset Sales Help Boosting its Q3 Profits

Samsung Electronics announced its third-quarter financial results for the ongoing year, registering a record-high quarterly net profit partly as a result of its strong sales in the cell phone division.

The South Korean handset maker said its July-September operating income for the telecommunications unit was $871 million, 23 percent up compared to the year-ago quarter. The company sold 60.2 million cell phones in the quarter, giving it a 16 percent year-on-year increase from the 51.8 million units shipped in Q3 2008.

The surge in sales was mainly brought by the touchscreen and keyboard devices introduced into developed markets, as well as the key models within emerging markets. They helped pushing its global handset market share from 19.2 percent in the previous quarter up to 20.8 percent – placing it on the No.2 position following only behind the Finnish manufacturer Nokia.

According to Strategic Analytics, this was the first time a vendor other than Nokia has sold more than one-fifth of the world’s handsets since Motorola’s heyday with its RAZR series in 2006.
On a company-wide basis, Samsung posted the highest quarterly profit of $3.14 billion, tripled from a net profit of $1.0 billion a year earlier. It has now recorded three consecutive quarters of net profit after suffering its first loss during the last quarter of 2008 due to the global economic slowdown.

For the last quarter of the year, Samsung expects even stronger sales supported by seasonal demand for consumer electronics and demand from emerging markets. The company said its "outlook is positive for further growth as the economic recovery continues into 2010". Other than low-end handsets, Samsung plans to focus on high-end AMOLED touchscreen devices, which run on Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.5 operating systems.

Still, increasing competition from rivals such as Nokia and LG in the mid-range to low-range markets may pose threats to Samsung, as this can lower the average selling price and the profit margin of its handsets.

Tags: Samsung Accessories, Nokia Accessories, Motorola Accessories, Motorola RAZR V3 Accessories, Motorola RAZR2 V9 Accessories, LG Accessories

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HTC Imagio (Verizon) – the Ultimate Multimedia Smartphone

The HTC Imagio is the first Verizon phone to run on the new Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional operating system. It features a full suite of V CAST media services, a large touchscreen, an updated user interface and a 5-megapixel camera, which combine into an all-in-one multimedia device for Verizon customers.

The Imagio is the first smartphone to support an array of Verizon’s V CAST services. Other than V CAST Video for streaming video clips and V CAST Music with Rhapsody for music download over-the-air, it sports with the carrier’s live mobile television service called Mobile TV. Also, there is a YouTube application for more video viewing options.

For music and video playback, you can use Windows Media Player 10 Mobile that plays a variety of formats, such as MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, MPEG4, WMV and AVI. Photo taking and video recording are easy using the 5.0-megapixel auto-focus camera and camcorder. Moreover, you will find a TV antenna on the back of the handset, which doubles as a kickstand for hands-free video watching.

Running on Windows Mobile 6.5, the Imagio offers Microsoft Office Mobile Suite, Adobe Reader, plus some new features including the "My Phone" backup service and Windows Marketplace for Mobile. As for web browsing, apart from an updated Internet Explorer Mobile browser, you can use the preloaded Opera Mobile browser and choose to view in mobile or full desktop version.

The Imagio is a global roaming phone with data access in more than 185 destinations around the world. Other than voice calls, it also offers a broad range of messaging choices, ranging from text and multimedia messaging to instant messaging via AIM, Windows Live and Yahoo messengers. With Microsoft Office Outlook Mobile, you can sync your emails, calendar, contacts and tasks over-the-air. Verizon also offers Mobile Email for accessing your POP3 and IMAP email accounts.

Boasting a large 3.6-inch touch-sensitive display with 480x800 WVGA resolution and 65,000-color output, it offers a virtual QWERTY keyboard and works with HTC’s TouchFlo user interface. Other added features found on the phone are VZ Navigator, Microsoft’s Bing search engine, Visual Voice Mail service, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth support and a 3.5mm audio jack. The phone accommodates a microSD memory card up to 16GB while offering 256MB internal memory. It measures 4.65" high by 2.43" wide by 0.55" deep and weighs 5.3 ounces.

All these enhanced features add up to a high-end smartphone that satisfies both your entertainment and business needs. Verizon customers who want to strike a balance between work and life will definitely want to own one.

Tags: HTC Imagio Accessories, Up To 16GB microSD Memory Card, Bluetooth Headset, HTC Imagio Cases, Lithium Battery For HTC Imagio, Car Charger For HTC Imagio, USB Data Cable For HTC Imagio

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