Mobile posts

Those of the Frozen North, rejoice – Telus has introduced a new unlock policy that will unlock a GSM handset for the comparatively paltry $50! Beginning February 15th, Canucks who have spent a minimum of 90 days under contract to Telus can bring in their handset for a little unlock action (Rogers, though already offering this service, requires a user fulfill the entirety of his or her contract first). Perhaps the best part of all this? The service will soon include the iPhone itself. While the service doesn’t break one’s contract with Telus, it can still be useful while you wait for your contract…

Geeks love smart phones, but if I see another “fart” application, I might just go kamikaze on my Droid X. Barring that potentiality, it has now become known that 26 percent of all applications are only used one time after installation, before becoming a waste of space, according to Localytics. And I think that fact is impressive. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that most of the mobile applications we install are stupid; they don’t do anything useful, they don’t do anything productive, and they don’t warrant the time spent downloading and installing them. Is it because the applications…

We knew it was coming. If anything, it may have started later than most predicted. The Verizon iPhone hype is here. When it was first announced that the Verizon iPhone was near, we all knew that these two marketing masters would turn it into something bigger than it is. A carrier picking up an old product is normally not newsworthy… that is unless it’s these two giants. Now that we’re waiting, Verizon has decided to advertise just how agonizing the wait really is for many people. …

Flip phones were hot in the first half of the millennium. If you weren’t a stuffy business type with a Blackberry or Palm, you probably carried a flip phone. Then, the iPhone came and changed our world. Smart phones took over. The flip phone died. It’s back. Sort of. With three flexible AMOLED touchscreens, a smart triangular design, and sporting a custom Android interface, this artistic and functional design by Kristian Ulrich Larsen gives us a glimpse of how the smart phone generation can be flipped again. …

Welcome to the United States of America, where mobile service providers continue to rape our wallets whenever they get the chance. The latest perpetrator is Sprint, who — on top of charging an extra 10 dollars for 4G access to improve the network — has decided that everyone should be charged an access fee of an extra $10 dollars for “premium” 3G access. Now I’m not going to claim to understand how these mobile carriers can be making millions of dollars, yet I can’t receive but a signal from one of these carriers (Verizon) where I live; however, I do know that if these costs are rising when the networking…

The announcement of the Verizon iPhone launching next month has a lot of people considering changing providers. Some are thinking of switching to Verizon to get their iPhone. Others are wanting to leave Verizon for fear that their service will go downhill once the iPhone onslaught begins. Other than local and regional providers, there are 4 major cell services out there. Which one is best? It’s always a matter of debate and often relies on word of mouth and reputation. Then, there are those who want data. Here it is. This graphic by Wilson Electronics puts all of the data and presents it in a visual…

Just in time for next month’s Verizon iPhone release, we present to you a bit of thought-provoking, guilt-tripping data. In this graphic by InfographicWorld was created for iAmGreen and brings to light some of the questions that nobody asks but everyone should. What happens to all of those cell phones that we simply stop using after we move on to the latest and greatest? How much power does it take to keep all of these cell phones running? Is it likely that this graphic will make you toss out (in the recycling bin, of course) your cell phones and go back to the age of landlines? Of course not, but it makes…

Android is not ‘cool’. There, I said it. Sure, this year it’s almost certain that Android will overtake iOS in terms of market share. And, the Consumer Electronics Show may as well be called the “Half This Stuff is Android Electronics show”. But, rather than simply being a question of what gets the tech world drooling, the ineffable nature of ‘cool’ has real consequences for ecosystems, economics and cultural cachet – and right now, for a variety of reasons, Android just doesn’t have it. Apple’s Cool Factor = Mindshare Here’s something about iOS’s success that people have never been very good at…

As we all know, talking on the phone has sort of become a thing of the past. No longer do people feel the need to open their mouths when they can simply use their fingers to accomplish the same thing. But SMS messaging has grown more than anyone could have ever expected. ABI Research is estimating that over seven trillion SMS messages will be sent in 2011, with growth sure to continue as mobile adoption grows. The research also notes that mobile growth is likely to decline somewhat in the future and that SMS growth will decline as well, but that is no worry right now — SMS usage is bigger and better than…

There are so many stats, studies, and graphics depicting the rise of Android and the continued success of Blackberry that we won’t mention them here. They’re all meaningless until we see a Verizon iPhone. When it comes, we’ll finally see how Android and Blackberry truly stack up to the iPhone. Speculations are rampant about when it will arrive. Some are now saying February. In true Apple fashion, the news will come when it comes and buildup to Steve Jobs standing on stage smiling with a huge Verizon logo in the background will not be necessary. It will have the fanfare of a product launch and everyone…