cellphones

Verizon Wireless shortens exclusive cell phone deals

Verizon Wireless said Friday that it will modify its cell phone exclusivity deals to ensure that smaller carriers get access to hot new phones more quickly.

In a letter dated July 17, Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam told key members of Congress that Verizon Wireless, which is the largest wireless service provider in the country, would allow smaller wireless operators with fewer than 500,000 customers to offer phones it was offering exclusively to Verizon customers after six months. Some exclusivity deals that Verizon has had with handset makers have lasted years.

McAdam sent the letter after lawmakers on Capitol … Read more

Teen cheating morphs with new tech, poll shows

Parents have yet another reason for a long, hard talk with their kids. More than half of teens admit to using the Internet to cheat, a new poll shows, while 35 percent say they've used their cell phones.

The results were released Thursday by Common Sense Media, which commissioned research firm Benenson Strategy Group to conduct the poll.

The report (PDF) uncovered several alarming trends. More than 38 percent of teens say they've copied content from the Internet and presented it as their own work, while 21 percent have downloaded an actual paper to turn in as their … Read more

Samsung Omnia 2 coming to Verizon

Verizon may not have the iPhone 3G S, but the sequel to Samsung's popular iPhone pretender, the Omnia, will be coming to Verizon later this year, Samsung announced at an event on Monday in Manhattan. As for the exact timing of the Omnia 2's launch, that's still up in the air, as Samsung reps said that Verizon had a tight leash on what info could--and couldn't--release at this time.

But here's what we know, and it looks pretty good:

65K WVGA AMOLED Display (3.7-inch, 480 x 800--largest AMOLED display yet in a phone) Advanced … Read more

Video: Cheesy cell phone commercials of yore

My first cell phone was an Ericsson CF688 on AT&T Wireless (original incarnation). I got it in roughly 1998. I bought this model instead of some of the flashier ones because it was small. I modified it with a new antenna and smaller battery to make it pocketable. I loved that phone.

Not many years before that, though, portable phones were large. We all remember the brick "Zack Morrison" phones, but do you remember the ads? They were fantastic.

Oobject has put together a collection of some of the best, with my favorite embedded above. Is … Read more

Rumor: 8-megapixel Samsung camphone heads to T-Mobile

There are phones with cameras, and then there are cameras with phones, and a new badboy reportedly making its way to T-Mobile seems to be the latter. This touch-screen Samsung beast features an 8-megapixel autofocus camera with flash and what appears to be optical zoom.

That would make the camera on this phone better than my normal point 'n' shoot, which I adore.

This would also probably be the highest-resolution in a camphone available in the U.S. as a subsidized handset. Since T-Mobile's 3G is finally becoming available all over, look for that as well.

TmoNews, an unofficial … Read more

The 404 229: Where there's no one here to pick on Wilson

With Jeff on vacation and Justin dying of stomach herpes, Wilson is left alone to hold down The 404 fort. Mark Licea and Joey Kaminski join him today to talk about Quantum of Solace, Obama's BlackBerry, and ordering pizza from your TiVo.

Unfortunately, Wilson doesn't have the writing prowess of a one Justin Yu, but he'll do his best today to sum up what was a relatively disaster free show. First of all, he actually did pay attention to the chat room. So all you haters out there, Wilson can read. We also wish our second favorite Asian, J-Yu, a speedy recovery. We know we shouldn't have let him go home with that woman. Mark Licea joins the show to talk a bit about the latest Bond-movie and how kick ass it was. Mr. Kaminski chimes in on President-elect Barack Obama's BlackBerry addiction and its threat to national security. People keep on getting lazier, with cell phone airport check-in and ordering pizza from their TiVos. This, in turn, brings up memories of My Half-ton Dad on TLC. (Seriously people when you hit 400 lbs. put down the cheeseburger and see a doctor!)

Finally, the latest trailer for the new J.J. Abrams-directed Star Trek comes out today. So for all your Trekkies out there, check your pants. It's already an order of magnitude more exciting than the craptastic Star Trek: Nemesis we got a few years ago. And we pay our respects to ValleyWag and Total Request Live. Only the former deserves our respect.

EPISODE 229 Download today's podcast … Read more

AT&T starts selling the Pantech Slate

The Pantech Slate, which AT&T claims is the world's thinnest QWERTY mobile phone, officially met the public when AT&T started selling the handset Wednesday. No word from AT&T yet how many units it has sold, but when your other selections include the iPhone and Palm Centro, we can't expect this tiny unit to be a door buster.

The Slate has a 1.3-megapixel camera, 2.5G (Edge) connectivity for data, and Bluetooth. It's not for everyone, and we can't really call it a smartphone, but for people who text often, … Read more

Wiis, iPods and Playstations dangerous to pets

A survey of 3000 pet owners has revealed that tech gadgets are proving hazardous to their pets' health.

No, this seems to be nothing to do with dangerous rays being projected from their electronics. Rather, it seems that our dogs, cats, and, goodness, guinea pigs, haven't quite got used to the rapid proliferation of domestic electronic playthings. Neither, apparently, have reptiles and birds.

For a reason that remains slightly unclear, iPods are, apparently, most likely to injure cats. I am not sure if this is because the cats are slipping the headphones into their ears and turning up the … Read more

Economic crunch spurs cord cutting

More than 20 million households in America have cut the cord and are going wireless for their home phone service, according to a Nielsen Mobile report released Wednesday.

Roughly 17 percent of households in the U.S. are getting rid of their old wireline phones and using their cell phones instead. That's a huge leap from just a few years ago when, in 2004, only 4.2 percent of households in the U.S. were wireless. The trend will likely continue as one in five U.S. households is expected to be wireless-only by the end of 2008, according … Read more