Looks Like I Will Have To Get Rid Of My Bag Phone

As of February 19th cell phone carriers, including AT&T, Alltel and Verizon Wireless, began turning off their analog networks. I wondered why my bag Phone stopped working. I loved my bag phone. It was heavy, it would fit into a backpack just fine and it was extremely powerful. I could be in the middle of a swamp (because there's a bunch of swamps around) and still get reception.

It seems that in 2002 the FCC decided to allow carries to turn off their analog networks beginning this year. The result? It will free up the radio spectrum and allows digital technology to be used more efficiently.

I am sure that you would have been notified but if you have an analog alarm on your house or have an OnStar system on your vehicle that is older than 2003, it's probably working as good as my bag phone.

Hold the phone there cowboy! I just found something. It appears that all hope is not lost for the bag phone connoisseur. I see that Motorola has the M900 and M800 bag phone available, AND they can be had for the low, low price of only $699.99

What a deal! But at least you can be 3 times further away from a tower and still get good reception.

Long live the Bag Phone!

 

Android Part 2.

The post is guest blogged by the
Android Guys and is providing a
brief overview of what the new
Android is all about. This post is
part 2 of 2 in what we are calling
the Android series.

Hey everyone this is Scott again from AndroidGuys, doing a little guest blogging thanks to Big Pappa!

If you currently own a cell phone or plan to in the future, Android will probably play a part in your experience. Google created Android with 33 other companies called the Open Handset Alliance. Essentially what they are doing is taking control away from cellular providers and giving it to the consumers. By providing less restriction, you will be able to do more with your phone than ever before without barriers getting in your way.

About The Android Guys:

While there may be a handful of excellent tech/mobile/gadget sites out there with thousands of readers, we found that nobody was covering Android specifically. We created the site as a project between a few friends who wanted to post our own daily findings about Android. As a community blog, we wanted to avoid the constant "Hey, did you see Google is doing this…?" situations. We intended to direct our friends there whenever they were asking questions. We realized very quickly that nobody else was doing this on any level, so we took it from our secret site to a larger audience. We've seen our traffic grow leaps and bounds in just over 10 weeks. Daily posts of facts, rumors, and opinion is what our readers have come to expect.We cull information together from a variety of news sources and report on what we feel is the most relevant. We also write our own opinion pieces every few days about anything related to the mobile industry in general.

I watched a few weeks back as an iPod Touch was given away here and was very excited to see the level of participation that the blogging community had. So excited in fact, that we decided to throw our own contest for our Entrecard brothers and sisters. Although we aren't giving away actual hardware or devices, we figured we pay tribute to what got us here in the first place. Entrecard credits!



We are throwing a contest through the end of January where you can win 250, 500, or 1,000 credits just for dropping your card off at our site!

As a way of thanking our loyal visitors, and as a way of roping in some new traffic, AndroidGuys is pleased to announce our inaugural contest! In what is sure to the be the first in a long line of giveaways, we are gonna throw a contest for our fans! So what exactly are the prizes? Read on!

First place is 1000 EntreCard Credits!
Second place wins 500 Credits!
Third place wins 250 Credits!

We're going to draw the winners names on February 1st at midnight so you have two weeks to get your entries in.

There are plenty of ways to gain an entry into the contest.

1 entry for commenting in this post.
1 entry for dropping your Entrecard off
3 entries for subscribing to our feed via email.
10 entries for writing a blurb about our contest.
20 entries for placing our 125px ad on your site until the contest is over.
50 entries for placing this into your site until the contest is over. (be sure to link back to the post !)

There is no limit to the number of times you can drop your card off!

Good luck! Enter as often and in as many ways as you'd like. If you link to us or host our ad, email us at androidguys@gmail.com so we know about it!

Remember, the deadline to enter is midnight February 1st at midnight. Winners will be announced the next day!

 

It's No T-800, Model 101, But It Will Do.

The post is guest blogged by the
Android Guys and is providing a
brief overview of what the new
Android is all about. This post is
part 1 of 2 in what we shall call
the Android series.


Android is the open source operating system that will be implemented into handsets and mobile devices starting second half of 2008. Being 'open' allows developers to create unique mobile applications that can take advantage of all a handset has to offer. For example, any of the phone's main functionality such as making calls, sending text messages, or using the camera can be changed or tweaked in any way imaginable.

Android is built on the open Linux Kernel which is becoming more popular on PC's all the time. It will run faster and use less memory resources than the other OS's out there. As new technologies and capabilities emerge, Android will be easily adaptable and able to incorporate them.

The beauty of open source is that all applications are created equal. There is no way to differentiate between a core application and a third party one. With devices built on the Android Platform, users will be able to tailor the phone to their liking. Change the phone's home screen, the style of the phone dialer, or any of the programs. They can even instruct their phones to use their favorite photo viewing application to handle the viewing of all photos. With a free, open source platform to work with, Johnny down the street can create a program with as much power or capability as the big software houses we've become accustomed to giving our money to.

Developers can combine information from the internet with data on your mobile phone like your contacts, calendar, or geographic location -- to provide a more relevant user experience. Some of the possibilities include finding the location of people and places based on proximity to them. Imagine driving down the highway and your phone automatically tells you the price of unleaded gas at the next exit. How about a promo that pops up to save $5 on your pizza if you mention the code when you go in? As GPS gets cheaper and incorporated into devices, location based services will emerge as one of the leading reasons to purchase a smart phone. Android is the open source project that will enhance your user experience.

Tune in tomorrow for part II.

 

The Top Secret GPhone

Most of you have heard that Googe's stock has bulldozed it's way past the $600 mark. Obviously this is an effect of the widely anticipated and top secret GPhone that is building momentum.

Adding legitimacy to the whole upward trend of Google's stock, the search giant announced its acquisition of an obscure Finnish start-up, Jaiku, holder of key Short Message Service patents. SMS is text messaging, the technology that enables the exchange of short messages between billions of ordinary cellphones.

Obviously Google is not discussing anything about the GPhone, but USA Today reports; "Trip Chowdhry, analyst at Global Equities Research, says Google also has already begun designing an advanced GPhone model, equipped with a Google browser optimized to display Google services such as Gmail and YouTube.

Aimed at young users, a browser GPhone would probably sell at a fraction of the price of an iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm Treo or Microsoft Windows Mobile smart phone, Chowdhry says. One major hitch: Cellphone carriers are insisting on a cut of ad revenue. "The carriers want money any time the phones are turned on, especially if the call is to Google," Doherty says."

The hardware has already been developed. The only thing Google needs to do now is sign an agreement with a carrier. Once this is done, the phones could hit the market in a matter of weeks. When it happens, it going to happen fast.

It also sounds like it is going to be faster, cheaper and more powerful than the iPhone.

 

How To Get Out Of Your Cell Phone Contract

According to the The Washington Post all you have to do when you in a contract with Sprint Nextel, is call customer service and complain until they don't like you anymore.

The communications company sent out about 1000 disconnect notices to "subscribers who call customer service excessively. The terminated subscribers called customer service an average of 25 times a month over the past 6 to 12 months, mostly complaining about billing or technical problems that Sprint was unable to resolve. Some called as many as 300 times a month... Customers did not have to pay a termination fee, and they were given until the end of July to find a new carrier."

Does this send a message to consumers that they only want you if you are willing to put up with poor service? Granted, this is only a small percentage of the 53 million subscribers that they have but I find these circumstances very interesting.

Well now you know how to get out of your cell phone contract if you are unhappy with the "Walkie-Talkie" people. "Did I hear a niner in there."

 

The Q Review.

I finally decided to make the plunge and get a smart phone. After plenty of research, I ended up getting the Motorola Q. Actually, this wasn't my first PDA/phone, I had the Blackberry 8703 for about 2 days. Realizing how poor that device really was, I promptly took it back and exchanged it for a Moto Razr. The Razr is an excellent phone by the way.

In my humble opinion, the Blackberry pales in comparison to the Q.

Right out of the box I noticed the Q's slim design and easy to see screen. One of the most important features for me is the Q's ability to have mail pushed from our exchange server. I get my email as it hits our server. The wireless functionality of the Q is absolutely outstanding.

You get MSN Messenger, Windows Media Player, voice dialing and a host of other extremely useful tools. You can even connect with your Q via Bluetooth dongle or hard line and use it as a modem for a laptop.

The phone works great! Although I sometimes have problems dialing with the wee-little buttons on the QWERTY keyboard, the reception is great. I read an article a couple of weeks ago about how the Q was designed as a phone first and a PDA second. The Q was fortunate enough to have inherited the RAZR's excellent antenna. This is probably the reason that I have yet to drop a call.

One thing to be aware of if you are venturing into the smart phone arena. You need to make sure your Outlook housekeeping has been done. On your first sync, you will get everything dumped to your Q. I have over 800 contacts in my database and it took me over 2 hours to go through and clean out the old names and numbers.

The Q has a couple of irritating little quirks. Some can be remedied if you are willing to hack the registry. One of the big issues for me is that you CAN NOT save attachments to the storage card. I get a lot of big attachments and it eats up the device memory fast. I am constantly going in and deleting the temporary Internet files. The other quirk that bothers me pertains to the web browser. The web browser does not go to your home page every time you load it. It loads the previously visited page. Not a big deal, I just find it less than optimal.

The Q does not have Wifi (802.11) capabilities. However, it isn't really necessary with Verizon's EVDO broadband access. Another negative is the lack of Pocket Word and Pocket Excel. My Dell Axim x50v had these programs and it was nice to be able to edit Word and Excel documents. The Q simply allows you to view the files. Other than these small inconveniences, my overall impression of the Q is outstanding.

As a closing point of interest, I found a couple of great websites that are entirely dedicated to the Q. http://www.everythingq.com/ and http://www.qusers.com/

Bottom Line? The Motorola Q is a great PDA/phone and I would recommend it to anyone.