when anonymous callers try to contact you, you can use an app that locates calls by cell phone numbers in reverse - use it when you are not sure who the number belongs to

 

• 19Jan

  Acer Liquid Brings Android Bare, Still Works Great

  Mobile Phones No Comments

  Acer’s first smartphone running Android is finally here, a refreshing change of pace from the company’s previous releases, which are all based around Windows Mobile. Billed as the Acer Liquid, could it be the handset that finally sets up Acer as a serious competitor in the market?

  Physically, it’s a mixed bag. The fun design, while not sleek, looks moderately attractive. It makes no attempt at covering up the cheap-looking plastic shell, although it does feel good when you hold it in your hand. Highlighting the front face is a large 3.5-inch screen (800 x 480 resolution), with a series of touch-sensitive buttons under it. The display is both bright and relatively sharp, but other Android handsets have used better.

  As a phone, the Liquid manages satisfactory calls, with clear sound and natural voices. Speakerphone is a bit on the poor end, however. The device runs on a 768MHz Snapdragon processor, which makes for impressive performance, able to navigate between menus quickly and launch new apps while others stay running in the background. Battery is rated at 5 hours of talk time. Since this handset comes with little bells and whistles, it will probably last you a good two days of regular use.

  Acer did practically nothing to spruce up the Android interface. Considering they’re going up against a league of HTCs and Motorolas that boast exceptional UIs, however, it’s a bit of a disappointment. Not that it’s all bad. It won’t match the usability gains that HTC, for instance, endowed their handsets with, but Android is good enough on its own. Plus, the lack of compatibility issues with a custom UI means upgrading to newer builds might prove easier in the long run. For customization purposes, they did throw in a few nice widgets.

  It comes with all the usual Android fare, such as Gmail, Maps and everything in between. They also added a few modifications in the background, such as being able to merge the address book with your Facebook contacts.

  Feature set is pretty standard: HSDPA, Wi-Fi, stereo Bluetooth, GPS and a 5.0 megapixel camera. The download speeds are excellent, making for quick browsing and nearly-seamless YouTube streaming. Image quality for the camera module is only average, though, with very few editing options.

  Despite the lack of much customization, the Acer Liquid actually sounds like a good deal for an Android phone, especially at the selling price of between $550 to $600 unlocked (depending on where you buy). Yes, Android is good enough to stand on its own (even without Sense UI or MotoBlur) and it does so very well here.

• 15Jan

  FlickTunes For iPhone Let You Control Your Music Without Looking

  Mobile Phones No Comments

  I‘ve always wondered if there was a simpler, no-look way to use the iPhone’s music player. Turns out there is and it’s been out for a while now. FlickTunes is a free App Store download from SoGeeky Software that purports to let you control the music on your handset blindly.

  Why would you want to do that? Personally, I wanted the functionality so I didn’t have to take out my iPhone from my belt mount. FlickTunes’ pitch, however, is for easier control of your music while you’re driving – which actually makes it sound a heck of a lot more significant.

  As a way to control your music while behind the whee;, I can attest to its usefulness. You swipe left to skip to the next song, swipe right to go back one, swipe up to play and swipe down to pause – all easy-to-memorize movements that does afford you some latitude. Swiping can be done anywhere on the touch surface. Other available functions (using two-finger swipes) include advancing and reversing tracks by 30 seconds, and changing the volume.

  It also displays track and artist information in large, bold fonts (along with the album cover), so you can immediately see it with a quick glance. During a stop, you can also tap on the lower right corner to see detailed iTunes information about the song playing.

  FlickTunes does the “swipe” control beautifully (after a brief phase of getting used to). If there’s anything I’d like to see added, it’s the ability to save playlists – the last thing I want to do is to pick out my on-the-road songs every time I drive to work (which is how they expect you to use the app). Since it’s free, though, I’m not sure if I’m really that justified in complaining. You know what, screw it, please have that in the next update because it’s going to make this good app even better.

• 14Jan

  Samsung OmniaPRO B7610 Brings Excellent Business Phone Hardware, Mixed Performance Results

  Mobile Phones No Comments

  Samsung’s naming conventions tend to get very confusing and the new Samsung OmniaPRO B7610 (formerly rumored as the Samsung Louvre) suffers from the same. Like its namesake (the OmniaPRO B7320), the latest business-ready handset also comes with a QWERTY keyboard. Unlike the former’s candybar form-factor, however, this one’s a side-slider with a full touchscreen in the front panel.

  Physically, the B7610 looks like a standard Samsung touchscreen phone, with the side-popping QWERTY actually proving to be a surprise. Oddly enough, the back panel (not seen in the photo) is more visually unique, decked with red, light-reflecting elements. It’s largely built of plastic and feels like it, although the construction does feel sturdy with a good sliding mechanism.

  It sports a 3.5-inch AMOLED screen, which delivers gorgeous displays. The QWERTY keyboard offers ample size and decent travel, but the sensitivity needs some getting used to. Early in our use, many of our keypresses just weren’t registering.

  As a phone, the Omnia PRO B7610 makes for decent call quality. You can have conversations clearly, but not without the occasional interference and muffled sound. The speakerphone, however, is barely usable with very low volume. Battery is rated for over six hours of talk time and it lasted us a good 1.5 days of very heavy use.

  The phone runs Windows Mobile 6.5 and brings an 800MHz processor to make sure it handles the OS capably. Unfortunately, TouchWiz 2.0 (which covers the entire phone) remains sluggish at times. It’s not terrible, but the lags are tough to swallow when you see guys like HTC doing Windows Mobile with acceptable speeds.

  It comes with all the usual Windows Mobile features, from solid messaging support to a bevy of onboard apps. Samsung’s updates to the default WinMo PIM tools are very much welcome (large buttons, bigger menus), along with the inclusion of an onscreen keyboard. As a business phone, it gets the job done handily.

  For web access, the handset comes with both Wi-Fi and 3G, along with Opera Mobile 9.5. It’s as good an experience as you can expect from a Windows Mobile device, although the aforementioned sluggishness does rear its ugly head occasionally. Media playback (both audio and video) is excellent, with native support for DivX, Xvid and H.264. Other notables include a fast GPS and an average-performing 5.0 megapixel camera.

  Overall, the Samsung OmniaPRO B7610 is a solid contender if you’re in the market for a business phone with both a touchscreen and a QWERTY keyboard, If Windows Mobile is indispensable to your daily work, then your high-end choice will likely have to be either this phone or the HTC Touch Pro2. I tend to fall in favor of the latter, although this is a quality performer all the same.

• 13Jan

  LG Helix: As Basic As A Clamshell Phone Can Get

  Mobile Phones No Comments

  The LG Helix is the first AWS-capable phone ever released by the Korean company. Apart from that, however, there’s not much to set it apart – it’s about as simple as a clamshell handset can get.

  Physically, it’s a traditional flip phone through and through. It’s slim, compact and should easily fit in your pocket, all while sporting a blocky, rectangular design. The Cricket version for the US comes in silver and pink (neither of which are particularly affable); hopefully, they’ll bring in the more attractive orange version too. As clamshells go, it sports two displays – a 1-inch color LCD outside and a 2-inch panel (with 220×176 resolution) inside.

  As a phone, it makes for largely inconsistent call quality – there’s occasional choppiness and crackly audio. Speakerphone was predictably tinny, but usable. Battery life is rated at five hours of talk time, which makes it good for a couple days of regular use.

  There aren’t much here in terms of features (and that’s not an understatement). You get the basics – a 1,000 entry phonebook, standard messaging, some PIM tools, Bluetooth and a WAP browser. As expected, there’s neither 3G nor Wi-Fi. Surprisingly, there’s no music player in sight as well.

  LG threw in a 1.3 megapixel camera, however, with a good amount of editing options. The picture quality was actually very good for such a basic camera, so that’s a silver lining. Rounding out the feature set are a few games (Super Street Fighter and Where’s Waldo) and apps (MyBackup and MyPerks).

  Overall, it’s tough to recommend the LG Helix. While I can understand the lack of features (it’s $119.99 without a contract), the spotty call quality is an absolute deal-breaker. It could be the network or the phone’s fault, though. If Cricket has good presence in your area, it might be worth the purchase.

• 09Jan

  Motorola Quantico Brings Dependable Phone Capabilities, Durable Make

  Mobile Phones No Comments

  Despite their recent successful forays into smartphones, Motorola remains a regular source of rugged handsets. The latest to come out of the company is the Motorola Quantico, a clamshell boasting compliance with full military specifications.

  Physically, it shares the same form factor as the recently-released Motorola Brute. The resemblance ends there, though, as much of the design is evidently different. Being a rugged phone, looks take a backseat to durability – hard plastic housing, textured rubber sides and back, securely-plugged jacks and a very bulky frame.

  It sports two screens, a 1.6-inch external panel and 2.2-inch display (176×220 resolution) inside. Both are colored. While they obviously won’t dole out the sharpest graphics, both have sufficient brightness and good usability. Both the keypad and navigation array are easy to use, unlike other rugged phones we’ve seen.

  As a phone, it makes for impressive calls – conversations were clear with no discernible distortion. Voices came through sounding natural with plenty of volume. On the other end, users reported the same positive experience. Speakerphone feature worked well, although those we were talking to reported some notable harshness in the sound. Battery life is rated at 5.8 hours, which should be good for up to 2 or 3 days of normal use.

  The Motorola Quantico comes with largely basic features. There’s the standard phone stuff, such as a 1,000-entry phone book, PIM tools, messaging (SMS, MMS, web email), stereo Bluetooth and microSD card expansion (up to 8GB). More advanced capabilities include a wireless web browser, aGPS and push-to-talk (depending on carriers).

  Music player is decent, with support for a wide variety of file formats and playlists. They also threw in a 1.3 megapixel camera with a good amount of options and surprisingly usable photo quality. Of course, we also tried dropping and dunking it in shallow water a few times – it’s good enough to withstand basic durability tests.

  Overall, the Motorola Quantico doesn’t bring much in terms of looks, but does make up for it with solid rugged capabilities and strong execution of its core features. US Cellular currently has it for $99.95 ( no PTT, though) on a two-year service agreement.

• 07Jan

  SIMFi Embeds WiFi Into The SIM, Turns Your Cellphone Into A Hotspot

  Mobile Phones No Comments

  Some phones can tether their internet connections. Others can’t. Soon, all of them will if you slip the SIMFi into your SIM card slot.

  Created by Sagem Orga and Telefonica, the new breed of SIM card comes with its own embedded WiFi radio and software, allowing you to share your handset’s data connection without anything else. No extra apps to download, no extra plan to pay for, no jailbreaking necessary – just put the SIM card in and connect away.

  How does it work? You just pop the card into a cellphone and turn it on. Onboard “SIM toolkit applets” act as the control software, managing the settings and other administrative tasks. The embedded radio will then create a Wi-Fi hotspot, sharing whatever data connection you have (3G or GPRS) to any device you want to give access to it.

  This means your phone don’t need to support WiFi to allow tethering, giving you internet access for the rest of your portable devices wherever you end up. All those laptops and netbooks with a 3G modem built in? No longer necessary. As an extra benefit, the data connection won’t need to siphon your computer’s battery too.

  Would have been more awesome if the SIM itself integrated a 3G radio, though, so my favorite $40 candybar can finally find use beyond calls and texts. Not sure why they didn’t do that, but maybe the technology’s a bit much to ask?

  With one of the world’s biggest telecoms, Telefonica, involved, you can expect the SIMFi to get a big push. More information should come out of MWC next week, so we’ll know the nitty-gritty of how this works by then.

• 04Jan

  LG Maxx LG9400 Announced For South Korea, Boasts A 1GHz Snapdragon CPU

  Mobile Phones No Comments

  LG Telecom has just introduced the follow up to the LG Arena. Originally rumored to be the Arena Max LU9400, the touchscreen feature phone has dropped the Arena branding and will simply be known as the LG Maxx LG9400.

  While not a smartphone, the company has seen fit to equip the device with a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8650 CPU (which, by the way, is different from the chip that the Nexus One and the LG eXpo are using, which is a QSD8250). Yes, a high-end processor for a handset that’s not running a full-blown OS. We’re not sure why they did it, but you should expect speedy performance from the top to bottom of the feature set with something this powerful.

  Details of the LG Maxx include a 3.5 inch WVGA touchscreen display, a 5.0 megapixel camera module, a finger-touch mouse control, aGPS, Wi-Fi and mobile TV (T-DMB). It’s running what appears to be an updated version of LG’s S-Class 3D UI. Other features include DivX support, HD video decoding and, presumably, an HDMI out (where else would you watch 720p movies, after all). By the way, the QSD8650 comes in CDMA and GSM flavors, so it should be safe to assume we’re bound to see this outside South Korea as well.

  The LG Maxx LG9400 should be available within the first quarter, although pricing details remain sketchy. It will come out under the fledgling LG Telecoms first (presumably to drive a few new customers to the country’s smallest carrier), before being picked up by both SK Telecom and KT.

• 25Dec

  LG Cookie Fresh GS290 Official, Scheduled For Release This Month

  Mobile Phones No Comments

  What tastes better than a cookie? A freshly-baked chip, of course. Maybe that’s what LG was thinking with their brand new touchscreen based off of the popular Cookie (over 12 million units sold). Billed as the LG Cookie Fresh GS290, the phone just received its official stamp today.

  The handset sports a largely youthful form factor and appears to be angling for the entry-level slice of the market. It sports a 3-inch TFT resistive touchscreen with 240 x 400 resolution, an accelerometer for auto-rotate and a “cartoon UI,” as with the Cookie Plus.

  Details of the Fresh GS290 include a 2.0 megapixel camera module, stereo Bluetooth, complete messaging capabilities (SMS, EMS, MMS, email), social networking integration, FM radio with RDS, a 3.5mm audio jack and microSD card expansion (up to 8GB). There’s no 3G or WiFi, though, so you’re stuck with GPRS/EDGE for connectivity.

  The LG Cookie Fresh GS290 is slated for a European launch sometime this month and the rest of the world later in the year. It is expected to be released alongside the slightly more feature-rich Cookie Plus, although no pricing details have been announced yet.

  On a side note, this battle of the Korean cheap-ass touchscreen phones between Samsung’s ever-growing Corby line versus LG’s similarly-multiplying Cookie probably won’t end soon, would it?

• 23Dec

  Nokia 7230 Brings Sleek Design, Lacking Features

  Mobile Phones No Comments

  We’re used to vertical sliders looking ugly as all hell, so seeing the Nokia 7230 is like a breath of fresh air. Good-looking and stylish doesn’t mean a joy to use, though. So how does it fare?

  Physically, it brings a sexy, curvaceous shape that’s more common in touchscreens than other form factors. The neat layout, band of chrome running along the edges and overall great feel in hand suggest an excellent design aesthetic. Keypad slides out smoothly from the bottom and provides a great experience – well-spaced keys, good feedback and accurate typing.

  It comes with a 2.4-inch screen (320 x 240 resolution) that actually looks bigger because of the shape. Display is sufficiently bright with crisp detail. It does have poor viewing angles, though.

  As a phone, the 7230 delivers excellent call quality. Voices sounded clean and very natural, with nary a hint of disruption. Speakerphone performed the same way, with ample volume and just a hint of tinniness. Battery life is very good, lasting a full four days of regular use.

  A basic slider, there’s not much to expect on the features end. It runs Symbian S40, which offers good messaging capabilities and a few other essential niceties, such as PIM tools, a music player (basic but decent quality; the bundled 3.5mm headphones are crap, though) and stereo Bluetooth. Better than most entry-level handsets, it comes with slower 3G speeds (no HSDPA), which top out at 284kbps. There’s no WiFi.

  The 3.2 megapixel camera is quite poor, managing noisy images. Indoors, it get worse, adding a yellowish hue and a noticeable lack of sharpness to shots. It does come with easy uploading capabilities to both Flickr and Ovi Share, however, in case you’re into that.

  Overall, the Nokia 7230′s best assets are its looks and the way it handles basic phone functions (calls and texts). If that’s all you want, this can be a good choice of a handset. Otherwise, there should be a couple of sliders along the same price range (between $150 to $180) that can deliver just a bit more on the features end

• 22Dec

  MLB At Bat 2010 For Android Brings Gameday Audio, No Video

  Mobile Phones No Comments

  MLB’s At Bat made its debut on the iPhone last year. This year, Android users get their turn at the service, which is an absolute must-have for any baseball fan.

  While the app itself seems lightweight (0.9MB Android Market download), the features aren’t. In fact, it’s quite surprising to see how much functions they crammed into it, all in a clean and straightforward interface.

  On first launch, you see all MLB games scheduled for the day, with options to navigate both forward and backward into the timeline. It’s an easy way to see game schedules, as well as to check out past scores. Click on a game and you’ll get detailed information about it, from box scores to pitch-by-pitch descriptions to video highlights. Unfortunately, no streaming video on At Bat 2010 for Android.

  The main selling point here is the Gameday Audio, which lets you tune in to any game broadcast during the year, from spring training to the World Series. With a live data connection (3G or WiFi), you won’t have to miss a single game anywhere you are. Do note that some pre-season games won’t have audio available, but all games after that will have feeds for broadcasts from both home and away teams. Streaming isn’t perfect (yes, audio is sometimes dropped), but the quality is good.

  Priced at $14.99, MLB At Bat 2010 for Android may seem a bit too expensive at first crack. Consider that it gets you audio for all games during the year, along with a slew of scores and stats, however, and it actually sounds like a fair deal. Sucks that streaming video isn’t available, though.

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