Google is activating 200,000 Android phones per day

Posted in Android by Conner Flynn on August 4th, 2010

Things are looking great for Android. Google chief Eric Schmidt must have been feeling elated when he revealed that his company is now activating 200,000 Android phones a day. That number is 25 percent higher than the 160,000 per day from late June and is double the 100,000 phones that were being switched on just three months ago. People really love them some Android.

Schmidt said he wasn’t sure how long it would continue. He isn’t concerned about the free licensing hurting revenue since many Android owners run Google searches that pop up ads and generate revenue from impressions and click-throughs. He noted that iPhone owners also make money for Google that way.

LG Optimus One and Optimus Chic phones

Posted in LG by Conner Flynn on July 5th, 2010

Two Android phones from LG have been announced, the Optimus One, and Optimus Chic. LG says that “Optimus” means “best” in Latin, but it sounds like a Transformer to us.

No specs have been confirmed for the Optimus One or Optimus Chic, but we can tell you that both will be running Android 2.2 Froyo when they arrive. A third Optimus phone, the Optimus Z, has shown up on LG’s corporate Flickr account, with LG’s Korean corporate name “CYON” branded on it as well.

You can hold Nokia phones however you want

Posted in Nokia by Conner Flynn on June 28th, 2010

When Steve Jobs addressed the iPhone 4′s antenna issue by telling people they are holding it wrong, Nokia seized the opportunity over at its official blog, where they tell readers that “whether you’re left-handed or right-handed, there’s no shortage of ways to hold your phone.”

And that’s how it should be with any gadget. To design a product like crap and then tell people they are holding it wrong is just lame. Good one Nokia. And for the record, I will hold any phone any way I like and it better still work.

Primo Cube secondary battery for MicroUSB and MiniUSB phones

Posted in Mobile Accessories by Conner Flynn on June 22nd, 2010

Phones these days use a lot of power. In fact, most of us need to charge our phone mid-day and at night. That’s where the Primo Cube comes in handy. It’s a tiny square charger that plugs into either a MicroUSB or MiniUSB jack on a phone.

It will work with just about any smartphone other than the iPhone that lacks USB. Could be very convenient and that $40 well worth it if it gives you precious juice.

T-Mobile to give away free phones on Father’s Day

Posted in T-Mobile by Conner Flynn on June 15th, 2010

T-Mobile has announced that it will offer a Father’s Day promotion on Saturday, June 19 where all phones in its stores will be free. That should make dads happy. The phones are free as long as customers sign up for a new family plan or add a line to an existing family plan on a two-year contract. They can get both regular and smartphones without any cost beyond the service.

Handsets will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. T-Mobile also says that there won’t be any rainchecks or exchanges after Saturday. To be clear, a family plan is made up of at least two users, and up to five free handsets can be put under the deal, each with its own two-year contract.

The Smartphone Guitar

Posted in DIY by Conner Flynn on May 9th, 2010


This guy created a music app and installed it on multiple Android and WinMo phones, and even an iPod Touch. Then taped them together to make a bizarre looking guitar, on which he can play Cracklin’ Rose.

It wasn’t easy. He ended up writing it three times: in java for android, in C# for windows mobile and in Objective-C for iPhone. To play them all at once, he just taped them on a piece of wood together with a battery powered speaker, then added lots of audio cables.

Vertu Japan outs four new phones

Posted in Mobile Phones by Conner Flynn on March 29th, 2010

Vertu is outing four cool new models for their upcoming anniversary. These include the Kinko, Kikusui, Nanten and Daigo. These have real gold all over and as usual it costs a ridiculous amount to get mediocre specs.

If you have a spare fortune and don’t believe in charity, you’ll want to buy one as soon as possible. $215,000 is just pocket money. All four of them sport unique and cool designs. Try not to get mugged because of your phone.

Vodafone has the cheapest phones in the world

Posted in Mobile Phones by Conner Flynn on February 16th, 2010

Vodafone has announced a pair of handsets they are calling the cheapest mobile phones in the world. Both handsets, the Vodafone 150 and the Vodafone 250 are aimed at emerging markets and are manufactured by Chinese vendor TCL.

The Vodafone 150 will be just $15.00. You get a basic phone with a 1 inch 96 x 64 monochrome display, polyphonic ringtones, dual-band GSM, a currency converter, an alarm clock, 2 embedded games and a built-in “torch”. No camera but it does give you voice calls and SMS and a built in mobile payment service.

Sony Ericsson Satio emits more radiation than most UK phones

Posted in Sony Ericsson by Conner Flynn on December 29th, 2009

While it won’t turn you into the Incredible Hulk or anything, the Sony Ericsson Satio is apparently leaking some serious radiation. The Satio is considered to be the highest emitter of radiation, compared to all of the phones available in the UK.

The levels are about 1.5W/kg of radiation emission, according to an article by Olga Naidenko, which involved the top ten emitters of radiation, from all the phones that are available on the UK market.

LG’s digital-TV-player phones headed for CES

Posted in LG by Conner Flynn on December 29th, 2009

LG never slows down. Lately they’ve been on a roll with digital media players, among other things. The players are expected to have better video playback compared to that we’ve seen so far on mobile players. And the company is planning to release three cellphones that support digital-TV-playback.

The phones will supposedly work flawlessly even when the user is traveling at speeds of up to 290 kmph. That’s a bold statement. The company is also working on chips that receive direct TV feeds. Hopefully we will learn more at CES.

RoadPilot announces RoadPilot Mobile

Posted in Mobile Phones by Conner Flynn on December 3rd, 2009

RoadPilot announces GPS PhonesDrivers who want to stay away from the long arm of the law as far as speeding goes can now download a camera locator application direct to their mobile phone from RoadPilot. RoadPilot Mobile will be available on an annual subscription basis, though the price is yet to be revealed.

To celebrate the launch, RoadPilot is offering RoadPilot Mobile with a no-strings-attached free trial until February 28th 2010. In addition to fixed cameras, it offers a real-time alert facility, which lets users notify other members of the RoadPilot Mobile user community if specific mobile speed camera sites are active.

Nokia releases five new affordable phones

Posted in Nokia by Conner Flynn on November 4th, 2009

Nokia releases five new affordable phonesNokia knows that this economy is tough on your wallet and so they have released five new affordable phones. These phones include the Nokia 1280, Nokia 1616, Nokia 1800, Nokia 2220 and the Nokia 2690. Sure they aren’t much to look at, but we are talking affordable here.

Each of these models has features that include anything from FM to a flashlight to dust-resistance to amazing battery life, so there’s something hee for everyone. All should be available by the first half of 2010.

KDDI and SECOM anti-kidnapping phones for children

Posted in Mobile Phones by Conner Flynn on October 19th, 2009

KDDI and SECOM anti-kidnapping phones for childrenIn this country we don’t generally let small kids walk the streets alone, but in Japan it’s common to see children of say 6 or 7 seven years-old walking the streets by themselves, so it’s good news that they have KDDI’s child safety device called the Mamorino.

KDDI has teamed up with security firm SECOM and designed the phones to prevent kids from being abducted. The unit features a GPS system that lets parents keep track of their children, while at the same time getting them into mobile phone culture at an early age.

Philips X806 and C702 touchscreen phones

Posted in Mobile Phones by Conner Flynn on September 30th, 2009

Philips X806 and C702 touchscreen phonesPhilips has unveiled two new touchscreen handsets, the X806 and the C702 which will most likely drop in China soon. The pair look pretty nice. The X806 is just 14mm thin, comes with a 3.5″ TFT display at 240 x 400 resolution, a 5-megapixel camera, Bluetooth connectivity, integrated FM radio, 47MB of internal memory and a microSD memory card slot. No 3G listed sadly.

Next is the CDMA 1X Philips C702 handset, with a 1.3-megapixel camera, a 3.4″ QVGA display, Bluetooth connectivity, GPS navigation, 70MB internal memory and a microSD memory card slot.

Acer working on several Android devices

Posted in Android by Conner Flynn on April 29th, 2009

AndroidEverybody is jumping on board the android wagon. Acer is already hard at work on several different devices using the operating system and software, and they plan to launch a smartphone using the software later this year.

Acer doesn’t want to be left in the dust, what with Samsung recently outing the I7500 and HTC pimping the Magic overseas. Gianfranco Lanci (President and CEO) says that “the entire industry is looking at Android,” and that the company “is testing Android on a lot of different solutions.”