CES - Cell phones and smartphones

LAS VEGAS--LG kicks off the first day of CES 2010 with the introduction of the LG Lotus Elite, a successor to the fashionable LG Lotus messaging phone from two years ago.

LG keeps the same square flip phone aesthetic from the original Lotus, but the Lotus Elite is a much sleeker-looking device with smooth curves and the addition of an external touch screen. This means the Elite has two 2.4-inch QVGA displays, one on the inside and one on the outside. The external touch screen lets you view and access your e-mails, texts, pictures, music, and voice mail without … Read more

LAS VEGAS--It's not like I need any more reasons to love Wi-Fi; my iPhone attests to that everyday. However, the Wi-Fi Alliance, a nonprofit group that promotes the use of Wi-Fi technology, has something it believes will make you love this popular way for devices to connect even more--especially owners of electronics that, for now, are not known to be Wi-Fi-enabled.

It is called "Wi-Fi Direct." and for the first time it's now being demonstrated at CES 2010.

First introduced back in October, Wi-Fi Direct makes connecting Wi-Fi-enabled devices much easier by allowing many of them … Read more

While Google Voice and Skype get most of the VoIP attention because they're, well, Google and Skype, VoxOx appears committed to making them work for their reputations. Announced in Las Vegas for CES, VoxOx's Personal Assistant 2 is the latest update to the sub-features that provide inbound call management as part of the full VoxOx program.

From Southern California-based TelCentris, VoxOx for Windows and Mac is a free desktop multi-protocol program that supports standard instant messaging, social networking, and Voice over Internet Protocol. The upgraded Personal Assistant features focus on remote access, and that's really the killer … Read more

LAS VEGAS--On Wednesday, Motorola introduced its latest Google Android smartphone to the world, the Motorola Backflip. Scheduled for a global release at the beginning of Q1 2010, Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha said the device would be available in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and North America but would not disclose any carriers. Oh gee, it couldn't possibly be AT&T, which announced five upcoming Android smartphones, including one from Motorola, could it?

The Motorola Backflip is a quad-band GSM phone with support for the 850/1900/2100MHz 3G bands (coincidentally, AT&T's 3G bands), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Boost Mobile announced at CES 2010 a new $50 monthly unlimited plan on Sprint's nationwide network to start January 13. Only a few handsets are eligible for this plan at launch, and they are Kyocera's Sanyo Mirro SCP3810 and the Sanyo Incognito SCP6760. Boost Mobile is also offering a $60 BlackBerry monthly unlimited plan for the BlackBerry Curve 8330.

The Sanyo Mirro is the only one on the list we have yet to review; it's a simple flip phone with a glossy finish, a 1.3-megapixel camera, GPS, and Bluetooth. The Mirro is $99.99, the … Read more

Pretty soon, some BlackBerry users will get to put away their key fobs and begin powering on their cars using only the smartphone.

Directed Electronics' Viper SmartStart app for BlackBerry will give drivers remote power to lock and unlock the car, pop the trunk, trigger the panic siren, and yes, start that engine from afar. We're also hoping that like the iPhone version, Viper SmartStart for BlackBerry will be able to control multiple vehicles and add in layers of security so that would-be smartphone thieves don't get a free car in the process.

While the Viper app will … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Lenovo has announced a new smartphone today called LePhone specifically for the Chinese WCDMA market. It has a really nice 3.7-inch 480x800-pixel resolution display and a completely touch-based interface for navigation--no buttons here. It also boasts a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, a 3.5mm headset jack, 3G data, Wi-Fi, A-GPS, plus a 3.0-megapixel camera and camcorder.

However, the big news is that the LePhone runs a specially customized version of Google's Android operating system, which Lenovo is apparently calling the OPhone. It has integrated Twitter and Facebook applications plus an interesting proprietary 9-pin dock connector that … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Ever since the HTC HD2 was first introduced at CTIA Fall 2009, the big questions on everyone's mind has been when will it be available in the U.S. and who will the carrier be? Well, we finally got the answer on the eve of CES 2010.

During his keynote address, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced that the HTC HD2 will be coming to T-Mobile, but he didn't really provide specific details about availability date or pricing. However, the smartphone is expected to ship some time in the spring and you can sign up for alerts on … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Sprint Nextel introduced a 3G/4G wireless router Wednesday night called the Sprint Overdrive that will allow subscribers to share their wireless broadband connection among Wi-Fi devices.

The Overdrive router, made by Sierra Wireless, uses Sprint's 4G WiMax network, where it's available, to allow customers to access the Internet and then it shares that bandwidth among Wi-Fi-enabled devices. Where 4G service isn't available, the router connects to the Internet using Sprint's 3G EV-DO wireless network. Subscribers can connect up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices, such as laptops, cameras, game consoles and other Wi-Fi-enabled devices.

Sprint, which … Read more