CTIA

Sprint's Samsung Instinct has taken center stage as CTIA, but the carrier has more to offer in Las Vegas. Monday it also unveiled its first series of QChat phones (see our Sprint QChat slide show for the eye candy), which for the first time offer push-to-talk interoperability between CDMA and iDEN networks. There's no mishmash of competing technologies here. The QChat phones make and receive PTT calls through Nextel's Direct Connect service. Oh, and incidentally, QChat marks the final nail in the coffin of Sprints previous ReadyLink PTT service.

The first two QChat handsets to hit stores … Read more

I know I have a strange fetish for cell phone speakers, which is why I had to scope out these Samsung ASP700 speakers that I first saw at CES. I found them at CTIA sitting pretty in Samsung's booth (where else would they be?) while attached to a Samsung Juke. These round little beauties, which have a decent sound for their size, include an ICE amplifier. Considering they're designed by Bang & Olufsen, it's not surprising that they're so eye-catching.

Call me a glutton for punishment, but at every CTIA I have to stop by the NTT DoCoMo booth just to see the cool cell phones that the Japanese company is showing off. Even though none of its models will ever arrive at a U.S. carrier, I still have to spend a few minutes playing with handsets like snazzy F905. Sure, the whole experience makes me rather bitter but I have to admit that the F905 is a sight to behold. The handset has a swiveling display, a crystal clear TV picture, a 3.2-megapixel camera and support for … Read more

Pretty soon, users will be sending SMS messages that go beyond grayscale. With easy controls from an attractive UI, users with a penchant for visual enhancements will be able to change the foreground and background color of text messages to suit their whim. They'll also be texting emoticons and animations, reading RSS feeds, and searching the Web from a variety of search engines. A Facebook app is on the horizon to add friends' status updates to the RSS ticker.

One can only presume that Affle, the UK company behind the muscled-up texting app, has grown tired of custom-making them … Read more

UTStarcom didn't have much of a presence at this year's CTIA, but it did sneak in an announcement of the AWS-enabled CDM-7126 handset for both Cricket and MetroPCS. The Cricket version is dubbed the CDM-7126C and the MetroPCS version is dubbed the CDM-7126M. They're both about the same, save for the look of the front surface. As for the phone itself, it's a pretty standard device, made for the entry-level market though it does have Bluetooth as well. The front surface is pretty unique in that there are LED indicators for incoming calls and text messages, … Read more

Though Sprint is carefully avoiding any direct comparisons with the iPhone, it's obvious that its new Samsung Instinct (SPH-M800) is meant to compete with Apple's device. They look almost the same (our Instinct slide show has a gallery of shots), they do a lot of the same things, and they rely heavily on touch screens and unique interfaces. These comparisons are inevitable and Samsung and Sprint are doing nothing to silence them. So Apple fanboys and slamboys, just take a deep breath before the flame wars begin.

I have to emphasize the Instinct is no iPhone killer, but … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Vodafone's CEO Arun Sarin shared a revelation during his keynote here at the CTIA trade show Wednesday.

"Something different is happening that will shape the future development of the industry and change who the successful companies are going to be and that's the mobile Internet," he said. "The mobile Internet is the new, new thing in the industry. And it is here for real and happening now."

My initial reaction to his deep insight was "Duh, isn't providing Internet access to cell phones the reason why you and the rest of … Read more

Vioce technology is Yahoo's big news of the day. While vocal search is one aspect of an enhanced version of Yahoo's oneSearch tool for mobile phones, it's the only aspect of the service that has been made available as a preview today. And the implementation has only been rolled out for BlackBerry phones.

Luckily, I happen to have one of those here at the CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas, where I met with Yahoo's director of mobile product marketing, Adam Taggart to discuss oneSearch 2.0 (see video).

Like Yahoo Go 3.0, oneSearch 2.… Read more

It seems as if the hype over Iron Man has been going on forever, so we're surprised that it's taken this long for someone to release a phone dedicated to the movie. (Side note: Are we the only ones who think Robert Downey Jr. is totally miscast?)

Like other promotional movie phones, including Homer Simpson's cellie, this customized LG Shine will bear the colors of its hero and include exclusive footage from the film. The main difference is that this handset is finished in 18k gold (not iron) and will be given away in an online drawing, … Read more