Category: Mobile Phones

A reader asks: My father is a businessman who travels a lot internationally, and asked me to find him a bare bones, simple cell phone that works well but also looks good. For the life of me I can't settle on a device. Instead, the market is flooded with smartphones or regular ones with tons of confusing crap stuffed inside. He doesn't text much but needs the capability, and his vision and ...

Last year, T-Mobile introduced its G1 mobile, the first handheld to utilize the Android operating system. Since that debut, analysts and spectators have been anxiously waiting for the next stage in Android devices, particularly the much-discussed Nexus One Google phone. Google announced the phone officially today in California. The presentation traced the history of Android and included ...

The cell phone has been draining the world's sperm supply for more than 35 years already. And yet, as ubiquitous as mobiles are today, so too are the dolts who still haven't grasped how to use one responsibly. For anyone who's ever gabbed at dinner, texted on the toilet, ruined a movie, or grossed out an elevator (just to name a few mobile no-nos), Switched presents the following guide of ...

Tag Heuer Meridiist Automobili Phone (Style-o-Phile, Cost No Object) Thinking of springing for the veritable super car of cell phones? Lamborghini has saved you the trouble of searching high and low by releasing a phone of its own. Housed in black titanium and hand-brushed stainless steel, the Tag Heuer Meridiist Automobili Lamborghini (price TBD) was inspired by the Murcielago LP640, from ...

digg_url ='http://www.switched.com/2009/11/06/9-banned-apps-youll-never-see-on-the-iphone/'; There's no denying the runaway success of Apple's App Store: to date, iPhone and iPod touch users have downloaded some 2 billion applications from its ever-expanding library of 100,000. But there's also no escaping the rumblings of discontent from many consumers and developers who feel that Apple is ...

Jabra Stone (Style-o-Phile, Under $250) The Jabra Stone ($129.99) is the first significant step for the notorious Bluetooth headset in some time. The design effectively removes the annoying "boom" of other headsets off of your face/ear; in fact, it can actually be concealed under longish hair, should you so desire. The excellent sound quality, good battery life, and slick charger (when ...

  It's hard to keep up with the cell phone market these days. New models hit store shelves seemingly every week, and carriers roll out new contract plans nearly as frequently. Maybe that's why the prepaid cell phone market is growing so rapidly. Consumers are flocking toward no-contract, unlimited services. At least two prepaid carriers have seen their subscription rates double over the ...

The madness of holiday shopping is upon us, and even though tech prices are dropping to all-time lows, it's still important in this economy to pinch pennies whenever possible. One proven method of saving, particularly for families or frequent talkers and texters, is to cut out those expensive monthly mobile bills and explore some prepaid phone options. Demonstrating the ease of prepaid ...

In an atmosphere of disappearing print magazines, increased TV viewing on the Web, and a tough market for both car buyers and dealers, one of the few successful car companies alive today needs to change the game a bit. So with the introduction of a niche-y hot hatch that isn't even that cheap, Volkswagen hits hard with quick and dirty campaign on everyone's favorite toy -- the iPhone. This ...

The iPhone increasing lets you do many things, but playing a real piano in real time so far hasn't been one of them -- at least until this past week at CEATEC, the annual consumer electronics show held in Tokyo, Japan, which we were fortunate enough to attend. On display at the Yamaha booth was one of the more impressive iPhone apps we've seen to date: Called Finger Piano Share, since it lets ...

The iPhone may be a failure in Japan, but the country sure loves its clamshell-style, flip phones, among other non-smartphone-styles, which is why the annual CEATEC show in Tokyo is often a treasure trove of innovative, stylish, and sometimes just plain way-out mobiles. Some are finished products that have just come to market, while others remain concepts that will eventually turn into a ...

A few years ago, Bluetooth headsets were rarely seen in public, and early adopters were accused of making both fashion and etiquette faux pas. But the proliferating bans on driving while holding a phone, coupled with people's discovery of hands-free convenience, has rendered the devices standard-issue these days. And headsets continue to improve in both sound quality and features. Most ...

As part of an ongoing effort to refine and improve mobile communication options for the blind, Nokia Labs has introduced a new SMS application (video after the break) that allows blind users to receive Braille text messages via the company's touch phones. The program receives the tactile texts, and, with a series of coded vibrations, relays the message to the user. To date, most blind-accessible ...

Wireless Bluetooth headsets are such a dilemma -- they're so handy to have in order to keep from Texting While Driving (TWD), yet so difficult to keep in a handy place while you're on the go (they're just so dang small). Until now, at least, thanks to Newton Peripherals, the folks who brought us the wafer-thin MoGo Mouse that stores neatly in your laptop's PC card. Announced back in June, but ...

For a culture that feeds ground-up, dead cows to living cows in the name of economics, we sure do get paranoid when it comes to disease. And there's no better sign of that paranoia than the Outbreaks Near Me iPhone app, which allows users to access disease outbreak information. The app is based on the free HealthMap Web site, but improves upon it by letting users add to the knowledge base. ...