Smartphones

2010 started off positively: an amazing CES visit, an uplifting State of the Union Address, and an entertaining Grammy Awards show. Yes, 'twas a great January...too bad that filthy, overgrown rat Punxsutawney Phil had to show up and ruin it with a dreary six more weeks of winter, which wouldn't be so bad except that Wilson won't have his iPad for another nine weeks.

Unfortunately, it turns out our furry little friend might be an amazing meteorologist, but his texting skills can use some work. It took Phil over two hours to send out his inaugural text message to awaiting subscribers. Phil took even longer to tweet out his prediction. Come on, Phil, are there no tween girls in Gobbler's Knob, Pa., that you can enlist to speed up your T9-ing? Maybe it's time for an upgrade.

Unfortunate news aside, we've also got plenty of exciting news to discuss, including this year's Oscar nominations! Of course, Avatar's nine nominations only make us that much more embarrassed about all of our trash-talking prior to watching the movie. But hey, we're big enough to admit our mistakes, however, infrequent.

And since that's more than I can say for some directors, we also have to take some time to run down this year's Razzie nominees. Will Transformers 2 take down G.I. Joe for worst movie of the year or Big Momma's House 2 circle back and reign supreme? Listen in to hear our predictions!

As usual, we've also got a few sticker pictures, but it's not even close to the number we've sent out so far, so SEND US PICTURES if you got them in the mail! Send all your tattoo and sticker pictures to the404(at)cnet{dot}com- we want to see them all!

Finally, today marks the premiere of CNET TV's newest show, preGAME! Hosts Jeff Bakalar and Mark Licea bring you all the latest gaming news plus in-house demos of the hottest games a week before they're released. The show starts today and runs every Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET. Check out all the preGAME action on CNET TV!

The launch of the Nexus One hasn't exactly been a smooth one, what with all the issues around upgrade pricing, early termination fees, and 3G issues. However, here's some news that's sure to bring smiles to Nexus One owners.

On Tuesday, Google announced that it has begun rolling out an over-the-air software update that will not only provide a general fix to the 3G connectivity issues, but also bring multitouch capabilities and support for Google Goggles to the smartphone.

The update is being released in batches, but Google expects most users will have it by the end … Read more

One of the biggest cell phone trends of 2009 was the rapid rise of quick messaging handsets. Not quite a smartphone and made for more than making calls, quick messaging models like the Samsung Impression typically offer QWERTY keyboards, support for 3G networks, and a full HTML browser. And depending on the carrier, GPS, streaming video, and music downloads may be onboard as well.

Messaging phones have become popular because they appeal to consumers who want more than a basic device--particularly one that is centered on texting--but don't want the extra features and required data plan that come with a smartphone. On that last point, however, the landscape is changing quickly.

As customers began to take advantage of the needed features on messaging phones, carriers wanted to capitalize on the extra revenue involved. Verizon Wireless was first out of the gate last year when it required customers purchasing a Samsung Rogue and an LG enV Touch to select one of two data plans ($9.99 for 25MB of data and unlimited e-mail or $29.99 for unlimited data and e-mail). And last month, the carrier added the data plan requirement to five other quick-messaging devices. As my colleague Maggie Reardon wrote then, Verizon instituted the plans because it doesn't want customers to be upset if they incurred expensive data charges from services that they didn't realize they were using.… Read more

On Tuesday, Sony Ericsson announced the latest addition to its Greenheart series of eco-friendly phones, the Sony Ericsson Aspen. However, it's not the green angle that's catching people's attention (though it certainly is a plus), it's the fact that the Aspen is the first smartphone to run Windows Mobile 6.5.3.

This update to Microsoft's mobile operating system brings additional enhancements to the user interface, including more finger-friendly menus and touch controls and support for capacitive and multitouch gestures. In addition, Microsoft made improvements to the Web browser, so you should see faster page … Read more

During last week's quarterly earnings call, Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha indicated that Moto would release at least one handset this year with the same, direct-to-consumer channel used for the Nexus One.

While Jha didn't elaborate on the handset, I imagine that Motorola will want to offer a device at least as powerful as the Nexus One, if not more. And for inspiration, we can look at the Android handsets that the company is introducing overseas.

Though the Moto's Droid and Cliq are its only Android handsets with U.S. carriers, elsewhere it has started pumping out multiple … Read more

On Monday, Verizon Wireless released VZ Navigator 5.0, a new version of its location-based service that brings enhanced navigation tools and more social-networking aspects to the app.

Available starting today on a select number of phones, VZ Navigator 5.0 now offers stranded motorists roadside assistance, so the driver can send his or her position to a dispatcher who can then route help to the location. Another new aspect of the software is Facebook integration. With this feature, users can make status updates right from VZ Navigator with the option to include their location.

Other new features of the … Read more

A new version of Google's Nexus One smartphone will apparently arrive soon for use on AT&T's 3G wireless network.

Customers are already able to buy an unlocked version of the Nexus One for $529. But the Android-based phone, which was launched last month, supports GSM radio frequency bands. The only 3G wireless bands that it supports are on T-Mobile USA's network.

This means that customers wishing to use the "unlocked" phone on AT&T's network can access only AT&T's 2.5G or EDGE network. And even though AT&… Read more

We've heard a few people complain that taking photos initially with their iPhone took a while to get used to because of the awkward placement of the Camera app's shutter button and the shape of the phone. Tapping the shutter button resulted in blurred or out-of-focus photos. So forget about tapping that button; we've got a better solution!

We noted that when taking photos with the iPhone it will not actually take the photo until you release the shutter button. So the key to better photography on the iPhone is to press and hold the button while … Read more

Mozilla has been steadily creeping toward its goal of releasing the first Firefox browser for mobile phones. On Friday, Firefox 1.0 for Nokia's Maemo--previously code-named Fennec--arrived.

Firefox for the Maemo 5 platform has a few interesting conceits that set it apart from other mobile browsers, like Opera Mobile and Opera Mini. Mozilla is banking on the uniqueness of its claim to fame--third-party, customizable browser extensions--to help its browser win mobile market share. Add-ons, after all, helped make Firefox the top browser alternative to Internet Explorer in the desktop space. To punctuate the importance of add-ons for Firefox's mobile browser, Mozilla also pushed out on Friday the general release of its bookmark and history-syncing extension, Weave Sync 1.0, for both desktop and mobile.

Mozilla's accomplishment with a mobile version of Firefox is a mixed one, and not only because Maemo is a platform relatively few people have heard of. Nokia's open-source, Linux-based Maemo operating system supports mobile Firefox on just two devices--the N900 and the N810, an Internet tablet. To make matters more limited, just two days ago Mozilla unveiled a third release candidate with a last-minute decision to pull wholesale support for Adobe's Flash plug-in from the build, citing unhappiness with the overall standard of quality. As an aside, this is apparently a sore spot for Adobe, who became miffed with Apple for excluding Flash in its new iPad device about the same time that Mozilla made its comment about degraded performance when visiting Flash sites.

Yet what kind of mobile browser would Firefox be if users couldn't watch videos or adequately view Web sites that heavily rely on Flash? Not a browser anyone could take seriously.… Read more