Technology Trends

The BlackBerry Storm smartphone is another example of touchscreen handset available on the market. Nevertheless the Storm has surpassed its rivals offering features and innovations not found anywhere else not to mention the email function which is extremely advanced and user friendly. This makes the Storm the most wanted and predicted mobile phone ever. However the other options have a little modified from the previous versions. This is due to SurePress, a structure which allows you to press the screen down to select a function, leading to a soft click. If you hold this telephone horizontally you get the SureType style keypad familiar to those who has used a BlackBerry Pearl smartphone, however when turning the phone on its side when the accelerometer adjust the screen automatically you get a full QWERTY keyboard which makes drumming out messages much more normal.

A swipe available in BlackBerry lets your finger scrolls around pages or through a picture gallery which makes it easier to navigate and watch.

The Storm is a 3G device and has support for HSDPA and EDGE and GPRS, so it makes web browsing quicker. BlackBerry browser has been significantly improved, so it’s miles better than prior incarnation. The data sending and email related features are simpler and quicker than any network you can think of.

With the Storm you get the 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with an LED flash, an extraordinarily capable music and video player, a 3.5mm jack plug for your own headphones and the assisted GPS receiver complete with BlackBerry Maps. Excellent it does everything imaginable and then some. Glorious style. Stunning looking piece of technology. When you have one you will start to wonder how you ever managed without one.

The full QWERTY form factor, be they sliders or Blackberry type candybars, seems to be the de facto standard for serious smartphones pitched to businessmen and executives,.

It’s interesting to note that Sony Ericsson smartphones have shied away from such phones with only the Xperia X2 running on Windows as its first ever QWERTY slider. That is about to change this year.

At the recently concluded Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Japanese phone maverick unveiled a couple more - the Xperia X10 Mini Pro in tandem with a touchscreen X10 Mini and the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro to team up with the Vivaz touchscreen unveiled last January. It also looks like Sony is starting a tradition to affix “pro” on similar handsets that it modifies with a sliding QWERTY keyboard half shell

The Vivaz Pro is everything the Vivaz is with the disappointing exception of the imaging function that got watered-down from a gorgeous 8 megapixel resolution in the Vivaz to just 5megapxiels in the Pro. But apart from that, and a slightly wider, heftier and thicker body due to the QWERTY body half, the Vivaz brings the same high end Symbian S60 5th edition smartphone to a market that Sony Ericsson thinks would have looked elsewhere for a tactile side-sliding QWERTY smartphone.

Outstanding Hardware Features

Both Vivaz and its Pro variant use the PowerVR Series 5 SGX graphics engine that the earlier Satio used but clocked at 720 MHz instead of 600 MHz. This allows both to process high definition 720p video recording with video light and continuous autofocus. HD video playback is a bit compromised though with the absence of DivX and Xvid video file codec support, but there’s nothing that a downloaded 3rd party app can’t solve.

As indicated above, imaging in the Pro is more modest 5 megapixel resolution but you still get the same autofocus and touchfocus camera with LED Flash, face and smile detection and geo-tagging. Your gorgeous images and videos captured on the Vivaz Pro gets displayed on a brilliant 3.2-inch Wide-VGA resistive touchscreen with 16 million colors that gets protected by a scratch-resistant surface. There’s the usual gravity accelerometer but a proximity sensor meant to disable touchscreen sensitivity in a call is missing.

Elsewhere on the hardware front, the new Vivaz Pro is your basic 3G smartphone on the dual band UMTS with the HSDPA at 10.2 Mbps and HSUPA at 2 Mbps. It’s also your quad band GSM with GPRS/EDGE on 2/2.5G data connectivity. It comes with WiFi 802.11b/g with DLNA, Bluetooth 2.1 and microUSB 2.0 for wireless and wired data synching, respectively.

You get a built-in A-GPS and stereo FM receivers, Bluetooth A2DP, 3.5mm headphone jack and TV-out (VGA resolution) ports. The phone memory is 75 MB expandable to 16 GB from its microSD slot and you get a 9 GB microSD card free with the retail kit. Talk time is a remarkable 12.5 hours and standby is 18 days from the same 1200 mAh Lithium-polymer battery powering the earlier Vivaz touchscreen.

Matching Software Features

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro comes bundled with Google Map 3.0 for its A-GPS receiver and Wisepilot turn-by-turn navigation apps. It comes with the SNS apps fro Facebook, Twitter as well as YouTube for online video sharing. There’s the usual PDF and Quick Office document viewer, WebKit HTML web browser with Java and Flash video support and the messaging apps like your typical email client and IM support. PlayNow online access to apps, music and games is also supported.

There are a lot of options in mobile phones available on the market today. The different models of phones, while all capable of making calls, actually have very different features and capabilities for many different uses. One mobile phone of great interest for many is the smartphone models. A smartphone goes far beyond that of providing the ability to make and receive calls.

For many the option of a smartphone is one that is essential for business and personal use. A smartphone is a mobile phone that is a mini computer that has a full operating system, full keyboard and other intricate and advanced features. The two most popular models of smartphones are the RIM Blackberry and the Apple iPhone.

While both are smartphones, each has it own personality. The Blackberry is much more business oriented while the iPhone is more of a hip and trendy model, and comes with full iPod capabilities for music and video entertainment.

Whichever smartphone you may choose both come with standard features, which take communication, entertainment and mobile computing to a whole new level.

Top Useful Features of Smartphones:

1. Email and Internet: Access to email and Internet browsing is one of the biggest attractions of smartphones. Many a businessperson spends all of their waking hours with their smartphones, checking and sending email with the comfort of a full keyboard. This is also a great way for students, moms, and most anyone to stay in touch with family and friends, do some mobile shopping or anything else that requires web browsing.

2. Full Operating System: Smartphones have full operating systems for mobile computing. They are capable of word processing, copy and paste of documents and most any other computer functions. And with full keyboards, computing on the run is never easier than with a mobile smartphone.



3. Applications: Both the Blackberry and iPhone have specialized applications that are available for download. These Apps include everything you can imagine, from stock updates to Apps for pets. Many find that these make the phone so much more useful, since they can choose from hundreds of different Apps to make life easier, more entertaining and for providing information directly from a pocket sized hand-held device.



4. Big Touch Screen Display: Another cool feature of smartphones, like the Blackberry Storm and the Apple iPhone are the big screen displays with touch screen capability. High-resolution big screens that allow for navigation of features with the touch of a fingertip on a graphic interface provide just another benefit to these smartphones.

5. Camera and Video: All smartphone come with a still camera as well as a video recorder. For many this eliminates the need to buy a separate digital camera or camcorder and really makes the smartphone the all-in-one gadget.

The Samsung i600 model is a serious flip phone for serious users. This phone uses Windows Smart phone to sync contacts, calendars and e-mail, as well as to perform a slew of other tasks, from regular to high-end tasks.

A product of Samsung mobile phone, the i600 model flips open to show a number keypad with flat, responsive, clear labels and a comfortable four-way rocker. The 2.2-inch internal display in the phone is sharp; moreover the call quality is good. So, user of the phone doesn’t face any problem with its sharp internal display.

Although Windows Smartphone’s ability to sync contacts and calendar wirelessly with Microsoft Outlook is addictive, the device’s e-mail sync functions are spotty and compatible. It is to be mentioned that the i600 phone does come with an extended battery.

Furthermore, the Samsung i600 model can also work as a mobile modem on Version Wireless’s 1xRTT data network, using the bulky included USB cradle. But without Bluetooth connectivity, the i600 model has no easy way to connect wirelessly to a laptop.

Although the phone comes with basic features like PIM, e-mail, and games, the benefit of Windows Smartphone is that it lets you connect e-mail and run a slew of third-party application. The third party application included Microsoft Office document readers, PDF readers, games, navigation software, and MP3 and video players.

A case in point between the Windows Smartphone 2002 and Smartphone 2003 is that 2002 version is slower and less media-friendly than the later.

The i600 model comes equipped with the best connectivity platforms of HSDPA and Wi-Fi mobile technology. Connecting to a Wi-Fi hotspot or home wireless router is very simple and hassle-free. Surfing on the Pocket Internet Explorer of the mobile phone is fast and without any delay. Well, there are users who were not able to connect to a W-LAN, for them the advice is that they must use HSDPA to fall back on.

Holding an O2 XDA MINI mobile phone in your hands as a symbol of ostentation might not be a good idea. It is not so because it has been incorporated with ordinary set of technical specifications or looks terribly ugly but the cause to this effect is its bulk. The O2 XDA MINI weighs 160g with dimensions making it huge for a mobile phone but nothing radical on the lines of PDA phones.

Let us walk down the features lane of O2 XDA MINI which makes it a pretty impressive device to go through. Even if the XDA Mini throws a hefty impression to begin with, it more than makes up for its bulk in other departments. To begin with, O2 XDA MINI is a GSM QuadBand mobile phone making global roaming a part of this package. The TFT touchscreen is huge at 42 x 57 mm and a viewer’s delight at 240 x 320 pixels display. The sliding QWERTY keyboard covers enough ground as expected to complement O2 XDA Mini’s status of Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 PocketPC Smartphone.

Moving ahead, we come across the TI OMP 850 200 MHz processor which ensures the operational rate of O2 XDA MINI so that the users do not experience slow processing while interacting with their phone. Memory expansion provision does not surprise but always comes on a welcome note. The MP3/AAC player has a task well specified which it performs with aplomb.

Data transfer/connectivity has options to rely on with Wi-Fi connectivity tools leading the charge followed up by Bluetooth, GPRS, EDGE, USB, infrared and WAP 2.0/xHTML browser. In the wake of as many features of this quality, it would be needless to say that O2 XDA MINI has a rather strengthened data transfer/connectivity front. The 1.3 megapixels camera with video and flash is nothing out of box but does well to be included as a standard feature.

Smartphone manufacturer BlackBerry have this week announced a new addition to their collection of smartphone mobiles, this time it is the turn of the long awaited Blackberry Bold which is also known as the Blackberry 9000.

The BlackBerry Bold has a large TFT display with the same half VGA resolution as the Apple iPhone’s - 480 x 320 pixels, as well as a full qwerty keyboard for those who use email a lot and the latest Blackberry Operating System 4.6.

The BlackBerry Bold has a 624 MHz processor and 1GB of internal storage. It also has a microSD memory card slot which can currently take 8 GB microSDHC cards, but once 16 GB cards become available it will also be able to handle these - so running out of memory really shouldn’t be a problem with the BlackBerry Bold!

As well as the usual email client, document viewer and document editor the BlackBerry Bold has a media player (which plays MP3, WMA and DivX amongst others) - so that you can use up some of that massive memory capacity with your favourite music and videos (being a business person does not mean you are averse to popular music or amusing videos!) The BlackBerry Bold also has a 2 megapixel camera with a built in flash and has in-built GPS and comes with BlackBerry Maps pre-loaded.

So you really are getting an all round smartphone device here, it has a little bit of everything to suit even the fussiest of smartphone user. The BlackBerry Bold is due out in mid-summer, although there is no word on pricing as yet expect it to come at a cost!

As a followup to my Must Have Applications and Programs for the HTC Touch Pro article, here are some more great programs for your HTC Touch Pro/Fuze. 

• AE Button Plus- An excellent program which lets you assign your hard-keys to certain actions.  Very useful to reassign hard-keys to open programs, show task manager, etc since the Touch Pro does not have this functionality by default.
• Diamond Background Changer - Changes your wallpaper based on a schedule.  Basically, you assign a folder of wallpapers for the program to use.  Then you specify how often you want the wallpaper to change (1 minute, 5 minutes, 30 minutes, etc).  Gives your phone a fresh look almost every time you look at it!
• Dotfred’s Task Manager- Much, much more powerful than the stock task manager.  Allows you to see all applications running on your phone as well as individual processes.  Also lets you see things like CPU usage, running services, and more.   It also comes with some useful networking tools such as ping, ipconfig, and net stat.  Furthermore, the task manager also includes a registry editor.
• FlexMail - A full-featured email client.  Much more powerful and configurable than the stock Pocket Outlook program.  Supports Gmail’s IMAP IDLE, which lets you receive emails almost instantly as they arrive in real-time.  Has multiple panes and a Microsoft Outlook look with a message list and preview pane.  Also supports lots of configuration for individual email folders and accounts so that each can have their own individual settings. 
• G-Watch - GPS enabled stop watch program which also keeps track of your distance, speed and altitude.  G-Watch also can spit out GPS coordinates based on your position - useful if the location you are at is not found in Google Maps or other mapping programs.  If you have the GPS coordinates, you can map your way to the destination even if the location is not stored in the map databases. 
• Kinoma Player- A feature packed media player.  Not only can you play music and video files from your memory card, you can also connect to online services like YouTube.  Kinoma Player is also compatible with Orb, which lets you stream your media files located your home computer to your phone.  This is an excellent program worth trying out and they have a free version available on their website.
• Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta 2 - The latest version of Opera Mobile.  Adds a zoom slider bar at the bottom of the window when viewing a web page in full screen along with some other minor changes.
• Slide to Answer - Replaces the incoming call function.  Instead of having to tap the screen to answer calls, you now have to slide a slider bar.  Have you ever accidentally hung up on someone because your phone was in your pocket and you accidentally hit the end call button?  Slide to Answer takes the frustration away.
• SmartPhone Tracker- This program allows you to locate your phone via GPS coordinates, useful if your phone gets lost or stolen.  Basically, SmartPhone Tracker is configured to listen for a certain text message.  When it receives that text message, the program will activate the phone’s GPS and obtain a lock.  Once it has GPS satellites locked, it will send an email or text message with a link to Google Maps with the phone’s location and exact GPS coordinates.  
• SPB Phone Suite- The major feature of this program are the phone profiles.  This lets you create rules for your phone’s ringer, wifi, and bluetooth.  For example, you can create a rule to put your phone in vibrate every Monday and Wednesday between the hours of 9-12PM.  If you go to school, this is an invaluable tool since you’ll never forget to put your phone on vibrate again!  You can even choose to enable your wifi and bluetooth at certain times of the day to conserve battery life.

What is FourSquare?

FourSquare a hybrid of a social network mixed with an interactive real-life game, accompanied by a very cool smartphone app. After account set-up, FourSquare is mostly used on your smartphone. You “Check-in” to places while physically at the location and offer “Tips” to other potential customers about what not to miss when they visit. This is one of the latest advances in Online Local Marketing.

Restaurants, bars, and live music venues are FourSquare’s initial focus, but other local businesses can and are already starting to add their physical locations as “Venues” to FourSquare in order to show up in “Check-in” searches. I recently checked in at Home Depot, not exactly a nightlife hot spot.

Here’s what you need to do to get your business listed…

1) Sign up for an individual profile on their website.

Don’t create a profile for your business. Create a profile for yourself. Do not skip the “upload a photo” step. You cannot collect “Badges” if you do not have a photo, nor can you become a “Mayor”. Do not use your business logo.

2) Search for your business.

There is a slight chance your business is already registered as a venue and will come up in search results, so perform a quick search. If you don’t find it, click “add things” in the top navigation menu then follow these steps…

a. Click “add a venue”, then enter the name of your business.

b. Enter the address. FourSquare requests that you use abbreviations for streets and avenues. Cities should be spelled out. States and countries should be abbreviated in CAPS, like this…

100 Main St. Dallas, TX 75043

c. Enter your business Twitter ID.

d. Add appropriate tags (i.e. keywords) relevant to your business. The default is that all Tags appear in lowercase. Very important: Add your city and state as a Tag. It doesn’t make a difference in searches on the website version of FourSquare, but it does in the iPhone App!

When the steps above are completed, here’s an example of a correctly added Local Business venue: http://FourSquare.com/venue/559367.

3) If you have a smartphone, download the FourSquare App and then Check-in to your Local Business venue. FourSquare is available for the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android. Download the App, Check-in, and then on the next day, Check-in again. At that point, you might become the “Mayor” of that venue. You have arrived!

The specialization of the ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated Company is a smattering of different products. Graphics cards, optical drives, motherboards, PDA’s, notebook computers, mobile phones, computer components and cooling systems.

Now, if you are looking for a mobile phone which has the Asus label, you may want to check out what the Asus M530W has to offer.

Asus M530W Specifications

To learn more about the Asus M530W as a mobile phone, here is a glimpse at its features and specifications:

- 2.4″, 320×240 LCD screen with backlight

- 2-Megapixel camera

- Front-facing VGA camera

- 64MB RAM, 256MB ROM

- Bluetooth 2.0

- Built-in QWERTY keyboard

- microSD card slot

- 802.11b/g WiFi

- Windows Mobile 6.0 operating system

- 416Mhz 32bit Intel XScale PXA270

- GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900, UMTS2100

- CSD, GPRS, UMTS

Asus M530W Review as a WM6 Mobile Phone

As you can see, the Asus M530W is pretty packed with features. When you compare the Asus M530W mobile phone with similar smart phones with a full QWERTY keyboard in the market, you will enjoy a lot of advantages.

First, there is the design of the keyboard itself. The problem with most full QWERTY keyboards or keypads featured in most smartphones in the market today is the spacing.

You may be enjoying the exact same keyboard that you are using while typing away on your laptop computer - but not all of them are comfortably spaced apart. This is not the case with the Asus M530W mobile phone.

Aside from the fully functional keyboard, the Asus M530W has a sleek, solid black design which is both classy and can qualify as an eye candy.

The Asus M530W has a thumbwheel which is located so that you can quickly scroll through the menus.

Asus M530W Offers Practicality at its Best

If you’re a practical mobile phone user -the keywords of the features that you will be looking for from a handset are the “standards”. When it comes to this, the Asus M530W does not disappoint.

First, there is a standard mini-USB plug which is really an open standard these days. Second, all the music lovers out there will be glad to know that the Asus M530W mobile phone has a standard 2.5 earphone jack plug. What more can you ask for from a smart phone, right?

The 2-Megapixel camera is also relatively good for the occasional snapshots.

The Verdict for the Asus M530W Mobile Phone

As far as a WM6, smartphone is concerned, the Asus M530W seems to have it all. The full QWERTY keyboard works well, the battery life is good and the device offers great speed for users who are always on the go.

Now, the lowlights of the Asus M530W mobile phone is that it does not include the HSDPA standard. The handset itself is also quite big - which may lend it that geeky factor.

However, if you love the features and you can overlook the fact that it has no HSDPA - the Asus M530W is as good a full QWERTY mobile phone as you can get.

Do you have a PDA, Smartphone or other handheld device that that has died or become less functional due to breakage or wear? Do you suspect it could be repaired but you don’t know how? Afraid it will cost you an arm and a leg– and aren’t these things more expensive to repair than replace? You’d like to take a chance on one of those online, mail-in repair centers but how do you know who really has the expertise, who is trustworthy and what price is right for your repair? If it is something simple, will they sell you the part and give you a little assistance to do it yourself?

Reputable, professional repair services do exist and they want your business.   They are fast, efficient and able to meet your needs. If you don’t know one and don’t know how to find one, follow these steps to find help and get your beloved device working for you again.

First,  decide upon some likely search terms and enter them into the search engines (e.g. terms like “PDA Repair”, “PPC Repair”, “Blackberry Repair” and “Do It Yourself PPC Repair.” ) Use more than one search engine because although they appear to have the same information, each is a little different in its search terms and may not have exactly the same business services listed. When you have accumulated a group of websites that seem like possible candidates to contact, subject each one to a deductive reasoning process to “filter” your range of options.  Use the following guidelines to scrutinize the sites.   At the end of the process you should have a small group of repair service providers you feel good about.

First Filter: Scrutinize the sites you’ve found to determine which ones market their products and services directly to your current need.  

Do they have expertise with your brand and model? Have a significant inventory of parts? Look for lots of parts for lots of models; the chances of having quick access to what your device needs are greater with a repair service that is well stocked and ready to advertise it.

See how much attention they devote to Do It Yourself customers rather than other repair businesses. Do they offer you technical assistance by email or phone, or both? You won’t need this for certain simple repairs and part replacements, but you may want breathing, speaking human being for something more complicated, just in case the pesky tech manual or leaflet falls short of your expectations.   Which online parts and repair services are clearly sending you the all-important message, “We’re here to help”? Steer clear of a business that seems to be a mere parts-supplier.

Some other signs of success and good business practice are customer lists that include well-known corporate clients, who increasingly repair and refurbish their PDAs and smart phones rather than replace them, saving them thousands of dollars every year. Personal customer testimonials are less reliable but still valuable as part of an overall picture.

Second Filter: Next, go where the pros go to research expertise and professional reputation. Conduct deeper research on each site that you are considering, seeking reviews, ezine articles, forum posts and blog entries that feature the company and its services.  Use the repair site’s name as well as the owner’s name or other names mentioned on the site as your search terms. (You might find these in the “about” or “contact us” sections of the site.)

Use more than one search engine and check a few social networking sites as well. Be willing to go deeper into the search engine pages, looking for older mentions of your sites and names, and keeping out an eye for obscure journals and newsletters that may be known to only a handful of people in the business.  Refuse to be intimidated by tech terms and acronyms.  

Walk around all the jargon and look for the recommendations of people who work in the profession. Do they give an impression that the business lives up to its promises of customer satisfaction? You don’t necessarily need to know what all the technical terms mean to get a sense of what the collective voice is saying. Notice what the site owners and their associates may have achieved in their field.  Have they developed new products or procedures that others are writing about?

Watch to see whether or not they are keeping up with the latest developments in their field, both in the hardware and software areas. The world of hand held devices and accessories is volatile and new products and services emerge often. Does their business reflect this? 

Reputation among peers may be a sign that this online business is a labor or love as well as profit. This is what you want.

Third Filter: By this time you will have narrowed down your list of prospective repair services and even more importantly, you’ll be more educated. Begin to make email and phone inquiries. Many online businesses like to begin new relationships by email. Either you or the site can suggest switching to more personal telephone communication. Have they provided a toll-free number?)

Don’t be embarrassed to show a lack of expertise. Ask them to pause, if necessary, as you make notes. Creditable repair services and sellers of replacement parts want to take care of you. They are interested in being good teachers and consultants when their customers need it.

You may know exactly what you need, for example a touch screen to replace a broken one, or a new sync connector. Most people can perform these replacements. Do you need some specialized tools? Ask. Even if you have to purchase a new tool along with a part you may still save significantly. Other repairs may be more complicated. Unless you love to find out how things work, you may want to turn this over to an experienced technician. Have your questions ready and ask the representative to make recommendations, and then ask why. You may discover that the innards are not as complicated as you thought, and enjoy the savings of doing it yourself. Leave all your options open. 

Realize that they may need to examine the device before they can tell you exactly what is wrong and what needs to be replaced or if it can be (most problems really can be solved-even if you dropped your device in water.) Like any good professional, they will have seen your problem before, and they’ll know how to ask you the right questions to narrow it down. Once you have sensed a zone of trust within your communication, you’ve probably found a service you can rely on.  

Be sure you understand their return policies and shipping policies, warranties and testing procedures.

You’ve researched, you’ve communicated, and you know that in today’s world online repair business is legitimate and booming. You may find yourself in the enviable position of having your own “tech guy or gal” to whom you can transfer all or part of the responsibility of keeping your device going for a long period of worry-free service at a price you can afford, with the added convenience of online shopping.

The HTC Wing is one of the top PDA/Smartphones on the market right now. If you are looking for a PDA with great cell phone capabilities aswell then you have found the right phone for you.

The T-Mobile Wing was brought in to replace the popular MDA Smartphone. The HTC Wing is somewhat popular itself because of some of the features we are about to share with you. One major feature that have people ready to buy the T-Mobile Wing is the full keyboard that it offers when you slide the top of the phone sideways. This keyboard offers great functionality for the business person looking to use there phone as a PDA aswell. This also helps in text messaging and emailing when outside of the office to help keep your business day on a roll.

If you are looking for a phone with top software on it the HTC Wing also includes the new Windows Mobile 6 operating system, which enables you to view and edit Word and Excel documents as well as provides instant message capabilities via Windows Live Messenger. This also includes outlook Mobile software which offers up-to-date e-mail, calendar and contact information. If you use the T-Mobile Wing in conjunction with Microsoft Exchange Server, you can get instant e-mail from your work account as well as enhanced security features that let you clear data from a device if it is stolen or require high-security passwords to access information.

The HTC Wing also offers a 2.8-inch color touchscreen transreflective TFT screen automatically orients itself depending on how you hold the phone (i.e., from portrait to landscape and back again). It displays 65,000 colors and has a 320 x 240-pixel resolution. The HTC Wing also features Wi-Fi (/g), which enables you to use open wireless networks to access the Internet.

Smartphones are wireless, they’re mobile, they’re even cellular (though who really calls them that anymore), but virtual? In this case the term does not apply to cyberspace, where a virtual phone call comes in from a virtual friend on your virtual smartphone. No, in terms of the future of smartphones as a product, a medium, and an industry, we’re talking about “virtualization”, as heralded by the promising work of one company, the aptly-named VirtualLogix.

To some, the term virtualization may be familiar as applied to computers and servers, wherein virtualization technology helps their hardware to run better and enables them to juggle multiple operating systems. In terms of smartphones, virtualization would mean a quantum leap forward for consumers in the functionality of their favorite little handheld device.

To give some perspective on the possibilities here, let’s take a step back from smartphones and look at plain, old, everyday cell phones. Virtualization technology can turn a regular cell phone into a smartphone. Now start to imagine what that suggests the technology might do for phone that’s already smart. Make it smarter? Better? Faster? It’s starting to sound like the 6 Million Dollar Smartphone.

Smartphone makers - read: Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, RIM, Apple - will be able to install VirtualLogix virtualization software during manufacture, and give them the ability to run multiple operating systems. Imagine no longer having to miss out on the productivity features of Windows Mobile because you opted for the user-friendlier interface of the BlackBerry, for example. Or being able to install Apple’s iPhone OS on your Palm.

This also means (listen-up all you technophiles) that users will be able to install Linux on their smartphones without interfering with the phone’s existing OS. To the average consumer, this may not seem like much, but people who know Linux know how many useful and convenient plugins with completely user-friendly interfaces the technophile and average consumer alike will have access to in no time at all.

It also means that consumers can look forward to getting, as one web writer put it, “a high-end feature on a low-end phone”. This kind of versatility could mean more feature-rich smartphones at lower cost to the consumer. It could mean a neo-video game revolution on smartphones. And it could redefine what customization means in terms of smartphones, as users will be able to make their trusty handheld devices as uniquely functional and stylish as are they themselves.

And if you think the idea of having a combination BlackBerry-Palm-Windows Mobile-iPhone is a pipe dream, consider the fact that Cisco Systems, Intel, Texas Instruments, and Motorola have all invested large amounts of capital into the venture.

You can expect to hear a lot more about virtualization in relation to the smartphone industry in the coming months.

T-Mobiles G1 has a truly open source operating system - Google’s Android. This was a big step, not only for Google, but for T-Mobile as well. The combination of Smartphone technologies and open source OS, gives consumers full control over their experience with the G1. With the G1 consumers can truly work and / or play from anywhere!

The 3.2-inch TFT LCD 320 x 480-pixel touch-sensitive screen is breath taking. Users simply tap or slide a finger to maneuver through the phone, and with every screen, experience pure clarity.

A simple slide-up, of the display, will reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. Typing messages (email, instant, or even text), along with manipulating documents, is just as easy as if you were sitting in front of a computer.

Knowing that Google developed the operating system, it should be no surprise that many of the default applications are also Google. (Applications like Gmail, Google Maps, Talk, and Calendar.) However, there are other applications like Windows Live and Yahoo Messenger, which are standard on the G1. Through the collaboration on Android Market, many other applications are also available.

It is the operating system that puts the G1 a little above other phones in its category. The G1 is the first phone that allows consumers to create their own applications, for their own personal use, on their phone. In addition, they have a community - Android Market - in which they can share their creations and use others’ creations.

The G1 has 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity. The combination of the two allows consumers to experience “always-on” connectivity. The phone will automatically switch between networks, as necessary, which goes completely unnoticed by users.

The multitudes of features, available on the G1, are endless. To name just a few, you have one-touch Google search, instant messaging, web browsing, GPS, and even a 3.2-megapixel camera. The camera, on the G1, is nothing to write home about. While it does have auto-zoom functionality, which works great, the overall picture quality is very poor. The G1 is not a phone you can depend on for decent pictures.

There are a number of quirks, on the G1. They are planning a release, towards the end of January 2009, which will hopefully fix some of the major issues. However, there is still no date as to when a new battery - with sufficient power - will be released. Other missing features, like on-screen keyboard, video recording, and stereo Bluetooth, may be fixed in a later release of the phone itself.

You can purchase the G1 for around $179.99 (with a new or extended contract through T-Mobile). With the numerous features and additional bonuses - on the G1 - this is an incredible price. T-Mobile and Google have worked diligently to bring you a phone that you can truly experience on a personal level. The G1 fits that bill.

Blackberry has recently launched its new Blackberry 9700 Bold phone, which is already crating buzz in the market. This shiny, black phone is also being known as “Onyx”. You will find plenty of good reviews of this phone when you surf the internet.

Like other Blackberry phones, this phone has a usual appearance although it is bit smaller in size than other Blackberry phones. The looks of this phone is amazing, it has leather back which is rare in other phones and also has small track pad. The screen is fantastic, having a resolution of 480*360, which is standard in RIM. Blackberry 9700 Bold has latest versions of OS 5.0. There is a decently-sized black border which runs along the entire screen, thereby enhancing its look further. With so much to offer, this phone will surely stand out from the rest.

Keyboard forms an essential part of any phone. Well, the size of keyboard in Blackberry 9700 Bold is neither too big nor too small, we can say that keyboard of this phone is among best in the market. Keys of Blackberry 9700 Bold might look small to many, but when you start typing text you will be awed by the degree of precision. Due to track pad, the surfing has become extremely easy on 9700 Bold.

Blackberry 9700 Bold features 3G technology and Wi-Fi calling. It has got corporate e-mail support and visual mail options. There are many useful pre-installed applications in this phone like Amazon Store, GPS Navigator etc, which will help you a lot.

When it comes to talking, the voice clarity of 9700 Bold is among the best. You will hear voice loud and clear. Even when you increase the volume of speaker, voice will not echo and will still sound clear, unlike most of the other phones. The improved battery life is another plus point of Blackberry 9700 Bold. For people who love clicking pictures from their cell phones, there is a 3.2 mega pixel AF camera in this phone. Processor of 9700 Bold is clocked at 624MHz frequency and gives you better speed and faster browsing experience while accessing applications.

For musical lovers, there is latest video player and an enhanced music player, so that they can enjoy their favorite tracks or videos on their mobile phone. All these features make Blackberry 9700 Bold a popular choice not only among professionals but others as well.

While we all eagerly await the release of the first smartphones running the highly-anticipated Google mobile operating system, Google Android, (not expected for many months yet) owners of many of the devices poised to be Android powered devices’ top competitors (ie. BlackBerry, iPhone, etc.) can already enjoy many of Google’s best and newest features on their smartphones. In fact, as one web reporter put it, thanks to the ability to integrate all these apps into his BlackBerry, as far as he’s concerned he already owns a Google smartphone.

The following are some of the finest mobile apps Google has made available:

• Search: Enjoy quick and laser-sharp web searches with that same ease and convenience that has made Google a household word. Plus, Google will even localize your listings, organizing your results based on your location.
• SMS: Google then makes searches on your mobile phone even easier by giving you this program that lets you perform Google searches via text message. What’s more, Google SMS saves and organizes your SMS searches for easy referencing in the future.
• Google Maps: Simply one of the best (if not the best) location-based programs around (MapQuest be damned). Not only can you get directions from anywhere to anywhere but you can see a satellite view of all maps, find out real-time traffic info, get public transportation directions, find the nearest business or public utility of any type of your choosing, and even map your present location.
• Notebook: Read and write quick memos to yourself on-the-go.
• GOOG-411: Just what it sounds like, a 411 lookup service for your mobile phone courtesy of Google. Not only can you get the contact info (phone number, address, URL) of any person or business, but you can then dial, SMS text message, browse, or map that info instantly at the press of a button.
• Reader: Read all the latest RSS feeds and news feeds to which you subscribe (and browse and subscribe to countless others) all from one convenient place.

Google even helps you view YouTubevideos with a Java-based version specifically for mobile phones, with many of YouTube’s most beloved community features built in. Google also enables you to use Blogger to post and read blogs (with photos) through your smartphone.

Plus you can access and sync with your existing Gmail accounts, Google Calendars, Picassa photo albums, and Google Docs.

Not all Google apps are as yet available for all devices, however. BlackBerry users, for example, are as of yet the only ones able to use mobile Google Sync to sync up their BlackBerry calendars with their Google calendars. But not all BlackBerry users (ie. BlackBerry Curve users) can enjoy mobile YouTube.

To browse all the Google mobile apps available for you on your specific smartphone, simply enter mobile.google.com into your smartphone’s web browser.