Cell Talk: The Blog for Pink-Cell-Phones.com

Cell Phone News and Reviews

Blackberry versus Apple iPhone?

I just read an interesting article over at Yahoo Finance by Mike Schuster called Why Blackberry Users Will Defect. I don’t necessarily agree with Mr. Schuster but he does have a couple of good points. In particular the recrational use of the smartphone. Who would have imagined a few short years ago all of the things you could do with a cell phone Today it seems people spend more time time texting and emailing than they actually do talking on their phones. The cell phone is fact has evolved into much more of a recreational and communcation device than a phone. My biggest problem with the touch screen phones is they suck battery life at an incredible rate. Unless I’m in an area where I am constantly on a roaming signal I rarely run out of battery in my Blackberry Curve. With the recent article by the Wall Street Journal indicating that Apple if going to produce an iPhone for the Verizon network we may finally see erosion of RIM’s marketshare with the Blackberry.

Checkout the great prices on these unlocked Apple iPhones!

I am hard on the cases I use to carry my Blackberry Curve and buying them from my Wireless carrier is expensive. Check out these OEM Blackberry cases and the  great price!

Hello Blackberry Curve…Goodbye HTC Diamond Touch Pro

Well my son’s  sorry HTC Diamond Touch smartphone was finally laid to rest a few weeks ago. As much as we tried to make this phone work for my son we just couldn’t do it. He is a heavy internet user and also sends and receives quite a few text messages each day. The battery just wasn’t holding up on this phone. No matter what we tried it just wasn’t performing. I mean the battery would be shot within 3 to 4 hours.  That is just unacceptable.  So, we switched it out with a Verizon Blackberry Curve and the Curve is working out beautifully for him. My daughter just switched over to a Blackberry Tour last week so I will be giving an update on it in the near future.

Check out these Blackberry Curve Smartphones

HTC Touch Diamond-Update

I reported about a month ago that I had acquired the HTC Touch Diamond phone for my 17 year old son. It is a nice phone with some great features. However, I have to take a minute here to address a significant shortcoming with this phone. The battery. The battery seems to constantly run out. He can take the phone off of the charger, with the indicator showing full, and go to school. By the time he gets home from school about 9 or 10 hours later his battery is toast. We have made all of the adjustments recommended by others on various forums (turn off bluetooth, turn off the Beam, etc.) and we have went back to Alltel/Verizon and addressed the issue with them. They replaced the current battery with a new one with the same results. That is our only complaint about the phone.

You can find extended life batteries on ebay. Proceed with caution if using non-OEM batteries. However, I have bought non-OEM batteries in the past with no problems but I have not purchasesed one for my HTC Touch Diamond.

So, unless I encounter another major issue my overall rating of the HTC Touch Diamond is good. Just be sure to take into account the battery drain when evaluating for use.

Free Blackberry Apps, Themes, and Games

I know most of you are probably using the Blackberry App World download site for themes, games, and applications for you Blackberry. However, if you are not or you are just looking for another place to find interesting things for your Blackberry try BBSoftware. You can find both free and premium Blackberry downloads here for varioius models of the Blackberry (Pearl, Curve, Storm). Check it out it’s a good site.

HTC Touch Diamond

This is a great little phone! My son’s Blackberry Pearl stared acting really crazy about 2 weeks ago. It would begin taking pictures on it’s own, it started randomly placing itself on mute when making phone calls, and it started randomly dropping calls. This phone had been working great. No problems, no dropped calls, nothing. So, we made a call to Alltel and they said we will send you box, mail it back, if it’s something under warranty we will replace it. I know this process takes a few days so I told my son I would take the phone to our local Alltel rep. I also told him we were a couple of months away from renewal on his phone so we may have to make do with a basic phone that I would buy outright or we would have to wait on the Alltel service center. Anyway, I took the phone the Alltel and the rep opened up the back of the phone and immediately said the phone had gotten wet. The indicators inside the back of the phone had changed colors due to moisture. My son carries the phone is his front pocket and I know it could have gotten damp but I didin’t think it had been wet. Then it hit me! About 2 weeks ago, on Prom night, my son went to get his car to bring up for his prom date because it was raining (actually it was a monsoon). He got drenched. And I’m sure the Blackberry Pearl got wet as well. Plus, this coincides with the start of problems with the phone.

Anyway, back to the Alltel store. Rep says let me check with my manager. Comes back and says you have been an Alltel customer for a long time you can go ahead and upgraded if you would like. So, after some consideration we went with the HTC Touch Diamond. It has a touch screen interface, 4gb internal ram, unbelievable graphics and video capability, and a great camera to boot. I’m not crazy about virtual keyboards, but I’m not the one using it. After 4 days with the phone my son loves it! I will keep you posted if we run into any issues with the phone. If you would like to see a quick tour of the phone check it out right here.

If you would like to upgrade your phone but are not interested in extending your contract check out the HTC Touch Diamonds below:

Verizon and Microsoft in Talks?

Wow. First it was Verizon and Apple hammering out a possible arrangement to bring a new iPhone or iPhone like device to their network this year and now it appears as if Microsoft is the hunt with Verizon as well. It seems that since Verizon picked up the Alltel customer base they are in quite the demand as a business partner.

The Wall Streed Journal is reporting today that “Microsoft Corp. is in discussions with Verizon Wireless to launch a touch-screen multimedia cellphone on the carrier’s network early next year, in a bid to compete with Apple Inc.’s iPhone, people familiar with the matter said.” The project has been codenamed “Pink” by Microsoft. Microsoft is looking to bring their Windows Mobile Cell Phone Operating System and Windows Marketplace for Mobile (read itunes type store) to a wider audience. They will likely get someone like HTC to actually manufacture the phone but Microsoft will likely maintain control of the software and service.

The HTC is an excellent phone and I think this could be a great partnership. The one thing that needs to happen is the price on the HTC devices needs to come down some. They are quite expensive. My daughter has an HTC phone and has been using for a about a years with the Microsoft operating system and she really likes it.

Verizon to team up with Apple for new version of iPhone?

According the Business Week the potential for a deal between Verizon Wireles and Apple to release a new iPhone or iPhone like device is in the works.  According the the article the agreement and release of the new phones could come as soon as this year.  Verizon has been making some serious moves in the wireless market the last year or two and this deal would be huge. With the recent acquistion of Alltel, which is still under way from the customer perspective, Verizon now has over 86 million potential customers for the iPhone like device(s).

The beta model has been developed and according to one industry expert there are two devices. One is described as iPhone lite and the other is more of a handheld media device designed to use Wi-Fi networks for calls.  The deal has not been finalized yet but it does give hope to all of the none AT&T customers that a serious phone upgrade could be just around the corner.

Blackberry Storm

My son has been really trying to sell me on getting him a Blackberry Storm. He likes the touch screen interface and the iphone look but also likes the functionality of the Blackberry platform. I have looked at this phone and I like it. The only thing I am concerned about is the virtual keyboard, but hey, he is is going to be using it not me. I prefer the Blackberry Curve. The bad news is I am an Alltel customer. I have been for years. The Blackberry Storm is not offered by Alltel as it is a Verizon phone. Well, as most of you know Verizon has bought at Alltel and we are waiting for the switch over. I visited with my Alltel rep last week and he informed me that I would be switched to Verizon billing in July and I could purchase/upgrade to the Blackberry Storm at that time. Who know’s by the time July rolls around he may be interested in a different phone! If not, I will be purchasing a Blackberry Storm like those shown below….

Vertu Luxury Phone

Vertu cell phones are the ultimate in luxury when it comes to mobile communications. These phones are hand built in England.  There is no assembly line involved here. Like the Ferrari and other high end performance vehicles that is what you will get with the Vertu luxury cell phone.

Not only is this phone well engineered it is stylish as well.

High resolution sapphire crystal screens. Stainless steel keys. You have to see it to believe it!

Check out the Vertu Cell Phone today in one of the 5 available models.

The Constellation

The Ascent

The Ascent Ti

The Signature S

The Signature

 

Read the rest of this entry »

Blackberry Curve 8330

The Blackberry Curve 8330 is great little smartphone from Research In Motion. I own one of these phones and I have found it very simple to use.  It is intuitive, small, yet keyboard friendly.  I have fat fingers but have very little problem typing a text message or short email.  With the opening of Blackberry Application World there are now numerous applications that you can run on your Blackberry Curve 8330.  I am currently using Viigo and Vlingo. Viigo is like a feed reader, almost. It has categories for news, weather, sports, entertainment, travel, stocks, flight information, etc. and with the click of the roller/pointer you can find out just about anything you want.  Vlingo on the other hand is a voice recognition interface program that let’s you speak many of the things you might normally use  the keyboard to do.  For example, sending a text message, sending an email. querying google, updating Twitter. These are all things you can do with Vlingo. I think Vlingo is a release or two away from having a knockout product but it is useful.

And yes my friends, it does come in red!

 For those of you considering the Blackberry Curve 8330 I have included a video review below.  It is linked from Youtube.

Blackberry Curve 8330 Review

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