Picking up where the Palm Pixi left off, the HP Veer is smaller than your average high-end smartphone. But not everybody wants--or needs--a monolithic 4.3-inch phone so it is nice to see HP come up with some alternative form factors.
While the HP Veer is targeted at first-time smartphone users, the Pre 3 is for the person who wants to do everything on their phone. It has a nice mix of business and multimedia features with the horsepower to do it all. I was only allowed to use the keyboard and a limited number of apps on the Pre 3 in the hands-on area. I got slight deja vu for CES 2009 when Palm launched the first Pre--we couldn't even touch it.
CES might be over, but the 4G phones keep trickling in. As a part of its aggressive 4G plans, T-Mobile announced that the Samsung Galaxy 4G will launch in the first half of 2011. But will it have the specs of the hot next-gen Galaxy phones? It doesn't seem like it.
Prior to CES, there were only a handful of phones with front-facing cameras: the iPhone 4, the EVO 4G and the T-Mobile myTouch 4G to name a few. This year's CES was all about 4G, for sure, but video chat is definitely one of the apps carriers love to use as an example of how great the next generation of data speeds is.
T-Mobile announced Thursday that it plans to double the speed of its HSPA+ networks and unveiled a line-up of new 4G products including tablets and phones.
The tidal wave of 4G phones at CES is just beginning with this morning's launch of the HTC EVO Shift 4G from Sprint.
As CES 2011 approaches, here are a few smartphone trends we expect to see at the show
The rumors surrounding a Motorola Android tablet have finally been confirmed--though we still don't know very much about it. Motorola posted a YouTube video today called "Tablet Evolution," which starts with an ancient Egyptian stone tablet and ends with the yet-to-be-named Motorola tablet. Nothing is revealed about the tablet -- not even how it looks -- but the bee flying toward it indicates that it will run Android 2.4 aka "Honeycomb."
The first phone to ship with Android 2.3 (also known as "Gingerbread") as the well as the follow-up to last January's Nexus One, the Nexus S (available unlocked for $530 or for $200 with a two-year plan from T-Mobile) is a joint effort between Samsung and Google with some impressive features. The hardware is gorgeous, and Android 2.3 delivers some useful enhancements; but with no support for HSPA+ or expandable memory, the Nexus S falls short of its potential.
The first phone to ship with Android 2.3 (also known as "Gingerbread") as the well as the follow-up to last January's Nexus One, the Nexus S is a joint effort between Samsung and Google with some impressive features. The hardware is gorgeous, and Android 2.3 delivers some useful enhancements; but with no support for HSPA+ or expandable memory, the Nexus S falls short of its potential.
It has been a busy morning in Mountain View as Google has announced the official details and specs regarding Android 2.3 (also known as "Gingerbread") as the well as the first phone to ship with the new version of the operating system. The Nexus S will be available (unlocked or with a T-Mobile service plan) and can be purchased online and in-store from Best Buy starting after December 16.
Watch out RIM, the Motorola is out to get your enterprise customers with the Motorola Droid Pro ($180 with a two-year contract from Verizon). This smartphone, unveiled at Motorola's press event at CTIA Fall 2010 in San Francisco, has some features ideal for business users and IT professionals. The other features and specs, however, aren't enough to entice the everyday user. On top of that, call quality is surprisingly uneven.
The latest addition to the T-Mobile myTouch family, the myTouch 4G ($200 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile; price as of 10/28/2010), has the most impressive specs of the myTouch phones to date boasting a front-facing video camera, HSPA+ data speeds and HD video recording. HSPA+ coverage isn't everywhere however -- and might be spotty in cities that do support it.
The advent of online coupons has made shopping and saving that much easier. In an earlier era, people spent their Sunday mornings clipping coupons out of the newspaper. Now, you can download coupons from dedicated sites like Coupons.com or Ebates.com, or even social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. But this convenience carries certain privacy risks: Some companies track consumer spending habits based on the coupons those consumers use.
To compete with Apple's iPhone and the Android army, Microsoft needed to pull out all the stops to sell Windows Phone 7 to the masses. Windows Mobile has a miserable reputation as being not user-friendly and slow. Throw in the Microsoft Kin failure, and you've got a lot of skepticism surrounding. Thankfully, Microsoft completely ditched the often frustrating, always sluggish Windows Mobile experience. Windows Phone 7 is a brand-new OS and Microsoft deserves a clean slate.