phones

GE phones home

There are so many products announced at the January Consumer Electronics Show, a few of them always manage to slip off your radar. For me, one such product was the new line of GE-branded cordless phones from Thomson. I know what you're thinking--"Thomson" and "GE" are yawner brands that have no place among your carefully groomed hipster-approved gadget lineup. Well, think again: I was able to spend some quality time with the new GE phones last night, and each of them offered at least one compelling leg up on competing products. Each model is a DECT 6.0 product (Digital Enhanced Cordless Technology), meaning it operates on the 1900Mhz wireless band that's free of the interference issues that can occur on the more-crowded 2.4Ghz band (which competes with everything from microwave ovens to Wi-Fi to wireless speakers). A quick roundup of the key models follows: … Read more

Before you switch to the iPhone

Since the iPhone is available only with AT&T, we have little doubt that some eager buyers will be switching carriers just to buy it. If you're one of those people, there are a few points you should consider before making that big purchase on Friday. Remember, you'll be shelling out $500 or more for that shiny new gadget, so you want to make sure you're spending your money wisely.

AT&T coverage Without a doubt, you better make sure that AT&T has adequate coverage in your area. That would include your home, … Read more

Today's Apple iPhone video: the keyboard!

It's time for the third installment in the Apple miniseries: How To Use Your iPhone. In today's episode, we learn how to use the touch-screen keyboard.

The video with the now-familiar man in the black shirt (does this guy have an agent yet?) takes us through typing on the touch-screen keyboard. The effectiveness of the keyboard has been one of the main questions about the iPhone, although three out of four hand-selected reviewers didn't find it that difficult after some practice.

Apple briefly covered the keyboard in the overview video it released last week, but this episode … Read more

Apple's iPhone audio gaffes

A couple of small--but I think somewhat serious--issues regarding the audio output of the iPhone have been percolating on the Web for the last week or so. The issues involve the iPhone's headphone/headset jack and the phone's ability to output stereo sound via Bluetooth.

Let's start with the headphone jack. In Walt Mossberg and Katherine Boehret's iPhone review for the Wall Street Journal, they state, "The headphone jack, which supports both stereo music and phone calls, is deeply recessed, so you may need an adapter for existing headphones." Why the port would be … Read more

What did Variety say?

The New York Times:

The iPhone Matches Most of Its Hype.

The Wall Street Journal:

Our verdict is that, despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer.

Newsweek:

And there it is: one of the most hyped consumer products ever comes pretty close to justifying the bombast.

USA Today:

Apple's iPhone isn't perfect, but it's worthy of the hype.

Jane's Defence Weekly:

While it doesn't kill people (despite what you might have heard), the Apple iPhone should be an integral part of any strategic urban assault … Read more

Crave's iPhone roundup

In case you temporarily lost consciousness yesterday, or missed our coverage of the fast-approaching iPhone release day, here's a roundup of Tuesday's Crave-ing of Apple's newest gadget.

• Both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times' gadget gurus unveiled their reviews of the smart phone.

• Details surrounding the available data plans from AT&T are now available.

iPhone features--some we knew about, others we didn't.

• A new iPhone video demos some new features.

• Apple Stores will host iPhone premieres from 6 p.m. to 12 midnight on the night … Read more

Manhattan iPhone Watch: T minus 2.5 days

11 PM Eastern time, and the iPhone's just over two days away. The latest news from the NYC iPhone front is that a line has begun to form in front of Manhattan's "other Apple Store"--the smaller, less glamorous, not-open-24-7 downtown location in the shopping-heavy SoHo neighborhood. There are only three people in line, however, and they're all together so they're taking shifts (two were present when I got there). All three are from advertising agency Anomaly, which represents the nonprofit organization Keep a Child Alive. The two Anomalists I met, Lindsey Lanpher and … Read more

iPhone...we're all over that

As you might imagine, there is a little bit of buzz around the halls here over Mr. Jobs' latest toy. You may have seen some of our coverage of late on the much anticipated iPhone from the WWDC conference, or caught Tom Merritt's "Top 5 worst things about the iPhone". Or Tom's "Top 5 Reasons to love the iPhone" You may have caught our new daily countdown show, "Eye on the iPhone" with Veronica Belmont, Brian Cooley's ranting on the Buzz Report, or Rich DeMuro reporting on the latest in "The Queue." … Read more

AT&T shows two slim Samsungs

Earlier this month AT&T launched a pair of slim cell phones with the Samsung SGH-A717 and SGH-A727. Though neither handset has an entirely new design, the SGH-A717 looks like the Samsung SPH-M610 and the SGH-A727 resembles the Samsung SCH-R510, both offer slim profiles and sleek, black color schemes.

The SGH-A717 sports a flip phone design. It has a rotating camera lens and a brilliant internal display, but the external screen is tiny and the keypad buttons are rather flat. We liked the features, however, and its performance was satisfactory, for the most part. For more on the SGH-A717, … Read more