smartphone

The CTIA 2009 spring show is just a few days away, and there are sure to be new product announcements. HTC, Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, LG--they'll all be there. However, there's one company in particular that's at the forefront of my mind, and it would be Palm. I'm sure you can guess why.

Both Palm and Sprint will be in Las Vegas for the show, but the companies don't have any news conferences or major events scheduled--just an invite-only VIP Lounge where they'll have the Palm Pre on display.

I really hope we'll learn some new information at CTIA (ahem, pricing, release date), since we clearly didn't during their last Webcast. However, I fear it'll be more of the same and we'll come home none the wiser. Part of me also thinks that they'll wait till the last possible moment (June) to deliver on their "first half of 2009" promise, but I hope I'm wrong.

Palm and Sprint are running into dangerous territory right now. We said at CES 2009 that it was risky for the companies to announce the smartphone (though smart in many ways) back in January and they had to careful to deliver on their promise and not delay the phone.

On the one hand, I commend Palm for better communication with the public whether it be through its blog or Twitter feed, but there's comes a point where the canned responses get old and things like the Webcast look like a stalling method or shameless self-promotion. I think it's pretty safe to say, we're at that point, and the masses are getting restless.

Also, with the new iPhone OS 3.0 and all its new features, the Pre has lost some of its competitive edge. (The chart below gives you a side-by-side comparison of the basic features of the two smartphones.) Plus, there's a chance we could see a new iPhone at WWDC in early June and that could certainly steal some of the Pre's thunder.… Read more

Skype, the Internet calling service owned by eBay, is expected to announce an application for the iPhone at next week's wireless CTIA tradeshow in Las Vegas, according to tech blogger Om Malik of GigaOM.

Skype is keeping mum on the announcement and has declined to comment on the rumors. But the company is hosting a press conference Tuesday afternoon in Las Vegas the day before the show kicks off. And it's likely the news will be announced there.

Skype admitted earlier this year that it's working on an application for the iPhone. Scott Durchslag, the company's … Read more

Speaking before an audience in Tokyo Tuesday, Chief Executive Michael Dell dropped a few hints that his company might be looking to release a smartphone.

"For the last three years, we have integrated 3G radios into our notebooks," said Dell. "We already have agreements with many mobile carriers around Netbook devices, so it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect that we would have smaller mobile Internet devices or smartphones in the future."

I don't think Dell can simply start selling small computers, call them smartphones, and expect to be successful. As a company that missed quite a few trends in the market and one of the last to stop selling Pocket PCs, Dell has to carefully prepare for some of the issues that await it if it does release a smartphone.… Read more

iPhone users in the United Kingdom heavily rely on their device for accessing e-mail and Web content, compared with owners of other smartphones in the country, according to a report released Thursday by market researcher ComScore.

During a three-month period concluding in January, ComScore found that 79.7 percent of U.K. iPhone users accessed news and other Web information with their iPhone. Contrast that to 48 percent for users of all smartphones.

And e-mail also has struck a chord, with 75.4 percent of iPhone users relying on the device for checking their in-boxes and sending messages, compared to … Read more

Delivering on its promise, Google released a new mobile application on Wednesday that brings its Voice Search feature to BlackBerrys, much like it did for the iPhone and Android-based T-Mobile G1.

The Google Mobile App is available now as a free download and allows you to conduct searches with the sound of your voice. To do so, you simply hold down the Talk button on your BlackBerry and then speak your search term into the phone. Brits, you'll also be happy to hear that the app now supports British English accents.

Perhaps even more powerful, the app also includes … Read more

We're headed to Vegas...again. But before we take off for CTIA, we discuss this week's latest news and rumors, including the possibility of the HTC Touch Pro2 landing at T-Mobile and Verizon's new Nokia Intrigue 6205. Is it really that intriguing? Plus, we review the Motorola i9 and HTC S743 and answer more listener mail. All this and more on this week's Dialed In.

News Nokia Intrigue 6205 launches on Verizon Alltel launches the LG Banter … Read more

Ever since the HTC Touch Pro2 was announced at GSMA 2009, everyone's been wondering when will the smartphone be available and which U.S. carrier will offer it. There's still no official word, but you know that never keeps tech community from sniffing out the details.

Now, thanks to a leaked ROM, multiple sites are reporting that the HTC Touch Pro2 will be headed to T-Mobile first. The test ROM, posted at xda-developers, shows the listed device as "RHOD21000" with the CID "T-MOB010" and language as "USA." To fuel the fire even … Read more

AT&T and T-Mobile customers have gotten their fix of BlackBerry goodness with the BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Curve 8900, respectively, but Verizon Wireless and Sprint subscribers are wondering when they'll get that same kind of QWERTY love. Well, we can't say when it'll happen but it looks like the love will come in the form of the RIM BlackBerry 9630 aka BlackBerry Niagara.

The Boy Genius Report managed to snag an early (not final) version of the dual-mode (CDMA/GSM) BlackBerry 9630 and posted some initial thoughts about the smartphone. In the report, BGR states … Read more

Q: I want to know how to upgrade a jailbroken iPhone's firmware to 2.0 or 3.0 from version 1.0. Presently, all I can do is listen to music, text, and make calls--I can't install applications. Meanwhile, my others friends have it all because they are on AT&T. I am begging for a way to upgrade to 2.0 or 3.0. - Ishan

A: First off, the iPhone OS 3.0 is available only to developers at the moment. It won't be released to the general public until this summer (Apple hasn'… Read more