smartphones

T-Mobile 'Gekko' officially reveals itself as T-Mobile Sidekick

It's so hard to keep a good secret these days. Just ask T-Mobile. Word of its new Sidekick model, code-named Gekko, got out months ago and was all but confirmed about a week ago when the ruthless blogosphere got hold of some internal T-Mobile documents about the upcoming model.

Well, today, the wraps were officially taken off the new model. Simply called the T-Mobile Sidekick (more on this new, puzzling naming scheme below), it's the first Sidekick to debut since device manufacturer Danger was acquired by Microsoft.

The Sidekick isn't a revolutionary, new product, but we think … Read more

Dell hints it's working on smartphone

It wasn't much more than an offhand comment this time, but Michael Dell's got the gadget-obsessed stirred up again.

In an interview with Om Malik of GigaOm, Dell was asked about the company's plans in the smartphone industry. At first he gave a vague, corporate PR-type answer: "We are certainly looking at the whole smartphone category, but I wouldn't expect anything anytime soon." But when Malik pressed him about whether his company was more interested in a Symbian or Android OS for any potential handheld device, Dell was slightly more informative.

"We're … Read more

Down the line: Smartphones

iPhone, schmiPhone. Now wait, don't go calling me an iPhone hater because I'm not. I'm just saying that there are a lot of other hot smartphones out there that deserve as much attention as Apple's starlet, and I've rounded up five of the hottest models.

Whether you're into the BlackBerry Bold or the Samsung Omnia, this group represents some of the most popular and highly anticipated smartphones this year.

I get a lot of reader e-mail wondering about their availability date, pricing, and so on, so I thought I'd try to kill five … Read more

AT&T Navigator goes global

Today, AT&T announced that it's expanding its AT&T Navigator location-based service overseas, making it the first U.S. carrier to offer international navigation capabilities. Dubbed AT&T Navigator Global Edition, the service is available now and works in 20 countries, including North America, the U.S. Caribbean, and most countries in Western Europe. It will also work in six cities in China--Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao, Shenyang, Tianjin, and Qinhuangdao--all of which will host Beijing Summer Olympics events. (AT&T is an official sponsor of the U.S. Olympic Team.)

Like the domestic version, AT&… Read more

Windows Mobile 6.1 update available for Sprint HTC Touch, Mogul

Update: July 21, 2008, 11:42 a.m., PT: This post has been updated with information about the Sprint Mogul software upgrade.

The Windows Mobile 6.1 updates have been slow to roll out to current Windows Mobile smartphones, but looks like today is the lucky day for Sprint HTC Touch owners. Available for download from HTC's Web site, the software update doesn't just bring the latest mobile operating system. You also get upgraded to EV-DO Rev. A; advanced GPS with support for Sprint Navigation; the Opera Mobile Web browser; and a full onscreen QWERTY keyboard. Hey, not … Read more

Samsung SCH-i760 refitted with Windows Mobile 6.1

In the famous words of Beyonce, "I can (up)/ Can I (up)/Let me upgrade you." Perhaps that will be the tune Samsung SCH-i760 owners will be singing today as Samsung released an official Windows Mobile 6.1 software upgrade for the Verizon Wireless smartphone. The software update is available for download through Samsung's Web site and has installers for both Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista users.

Nokia racks up more handset sales

Nokia is gobbling up market share on mobile handsets fueled by sales in emerging markets, as some of its competitors likely fall further behind.

On Thursday, the Finnish mobile phone maker beat sales expectations on its mobile handset business when it announced its earnings for the second quarter of 2008. Nokia sold 122 million cell phones during the quarter, beating the average analyst forecast of about 120 million phones for the quarter.

As a result, the company increased market share once again grabbing about 40 percent of the market, up about two percentage points from its second quarter 2007 market … Read more

Comparing the iPhone 3G's battery life

There's been some grumbling on the blogsphere about the iPhone's 3G's battery life, which Apple rates at five hours of 3G talk time. Indeed, five hours wouldn't get the most ardent road warrior through the day, but is five hours really that poor? Sure, it is quite low when compared with the iPhone's promised EDGE talk time of 10 hours, but when stacked up against other 3G handsets the iPhone holds its own. Below you'll find a selection of current 3G cell phones and smartphones and their tested talk time (in hours) from CNET Labs. … Read more

Palm Treo 800w debuts with Sprint

The world may still be all abuzz with iPhone 3G talk, but believe it or not, there are other smartphones out there, and Sprint just happened to land a pretty good one.

The carrier and Palm on Monday unveiled the Palm Treo 800w, a Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone targeted at business users. Now, we'll admit that we've given Palm its fair share of criticism over the years for being behind the times and lacking innovation, but while the Treo 800w doesn't offer anything earth-shattering, it offers enough to stifle some of our complaints.

We're talking … Read more