Smartphones

Vlingo is an app that's been around awhile in the mobile space, but a new version for iPhone is causing some uproar. With Vlingo for iPhone 2.0, the company commits the sin of opacity by updating its rather good voice search and dialing application to version 2.0 without making it clear that you can only unlock the intriguing new features with your wallet.

Those familiar with Vlingo's BlackBerry app won't be surprised. There was an equal outcry when Vlingo introduced premium features for the first time, including switching a feature that had once been free … Read more

Earlier this week, we talked about the rumor from Boy Genius Report suggesting an upcoming BlackBerry slider device. Well, pictures of such a product have emerged courtesy of BlackBerry Leaks. The blog posted clear photos of a handset with a portrait-style slide-down keyboard. This QWERTY keypad and dimensions appear to be very similar to a BlackBerry Curve, though the rumored phone does appear slightly thicker.

According to the author of the blog post, this product doesn't have the company's SurePress touch-screen technology. But the same article mentions that the device could not be turned on because of a … Read more

Last month, we shared the sad story of how our brand-new Google Nexus One went from Crave fave to purple nurple, with a cracked screen that scarred its beautiful AMOLED screen forever.

We took our Nexus One to HTC support--under encouragement from Google--and it promised to investigate fully. Now the results are in, and HTC tells us it couldn't find anything that could have caused a crack while the phone wasn't being handled.

Read more of "HTC on Nexus One cracked screen: 'They don't go in pockets'" at Crave UK.

Canadian Google Android fans got more good news this week when Motorola announced a trio of handsets were headed north of the border. The three phones--the Quench (known as the Cliq XT south of the border), Backflip, and Dext (aka the Cliq in the U.S.)--each run Motorola's Motoblur user interface on top of Android. The smartphones are scheduled to arrive sometime within the first half of this year.

Though we don't know which carriers will get the handsets, three major Canadian service providers, Rogers, Bell, and Telus, are mentioned in the official press release.

Between this … Read more

According to "sources familiar with the matter," Verizon Wireless will release the Nexus One on March 23. Tech Web site Neowin.net is reporting that the nation's largest carrier plans to make the official availability announcement on the first day of the annual CTIA trade show in Las Vegas.

Although no Verizon reps are scheduled to take the stage for any keynote address, the carrier will have a booth. As the Google Android handset isn't brand new, a simple press release might suffice for getting the word out.

Last week, a CDMA HTC phone cleared the FCC … Read more

Unless your iPhone went straight from box to case, it's probably lost some--if not all--of its original shiny luster. Indeed, it's rare to find a handset that doesn't end up looking like the one in this picture after a few months.

It's awful, right? That's more or less how my iPhone 3GS looks, and it's been riding inside a rubberized shell since day one. Unfortunately, while there are plenty of DIY guides showing you how to fix the front of an iPhone, I've yet to see one that focuses on its backside.

Until … Read more

After the Windows Phone 7 launch passed without so much as a mention of Project Pink, Microsoft's other new phone project started to fade into memory. Today, we can confirm: Pink's coming, and Verizon's the carrier. UPDATE: First live shots.

A tipster passed us a load of third-party marketing materials, in which a promotional plan for Pink is laid out in detail. (Campaign specifics and most graphics have to be withheld to protect the innocent, but rest assured, they're legit.) The documents don't talk about specs or software details, or more importantly why the hell Microsoft thinks this weird little pebble is a good idea, but there's plenty we can learn:

• The early Pink renders leaked to us back in September? Those are exactly the same ones included in the proposal.

• Of the two phones in prior leaks, only one shows up here: The Turtle vertical slider. It's a messaging phone, basically--one part Pre, and two parts Sidekick. (Or maybe three.)

• Verizon is a launch partner for the device, and probably an exclusive carrier. The branding and marketing in the documents suggests a joint Microsoft/Verizon launch, but another carrier isn't completely out of the question.

• The phones aren't running Windows Phone 7, unless it's hidden behind a different interface. Virtually all rumors around the Pink platform implied as much, and again, this appears to be something fundamentally different.

• Social Networking! It's all over the proposal, and presumably, the phone.

• It's suggested that the platform has apps of some sort. For a phone like this to share apps with Windows Phone 7 is pretty much impossible--the minimum hardware requirement for a Windows Phone looks out of reach for this little black lump--so this one's a big question mark. Is it another SDK? Or closed app development like we've seen on the Zune HD? Web apps?… Read more

As if keeping the differences straight between Opera's Mobile and Mini browsers weren't tricky enough already, Opera has added another twist by releasing Opera Mini 5 beta for Windows phones, a mobile platform that has previously only run the Opera Mobile app.

Until now, Opera's mobile browsers boiled down to this: Opera Mini (stable|beta) is the proxy browser for Java-based phones that feeds Web content through Opera's servers. And Opera Mobile (stable|beta), is the full Web experience for Symbian and Windows phones that's written with Web code.

The "Mini" browser doesn't render Web sites as faithfully as Opera Mobile's true Web client (and it still won't for Windows phones) but it does return key content faster.

We loaded CNET.com and other graphics-heavy sites using both Opera Mobile 10 beta 2 and the brand-new Opera Mini 5 beta on an HTC Touch Diamond 2 running Windows Mobile 6.5 (got all that?). Opera Mobile took more than 15 seconds to load over Wi-Fi, but it rendered the page in desktop view and displayed CNET's Flash. Opera Mini loaded CNET's mobile-optimized site in a fraction of the time, but we missed out on the landing page.… Read more

Most people are happy with their feature phones , but if you're finding you've outgrown yours and need more functionality, it might be time to upgrade to a smartphone. A smartphone can offer you more advanced contact, e-mail, and calendar functions, additional productivity apps, a better Web browsing experience, and so much more. If you've been hesitant to graduate to a smartphone because it seems too technical or excessive, think again. The handsets in our gallery below are good starters, offering ease of use and the essential tools for messaging, voice calls, and productivity. Fair warning: most of … Read more