Ever heard of “Silent Mode” for your phone?

Ever embarrassed yourself at a big meeting, or church, or any where else that you really should have turned your phone off, or at least to silent or vibrate? What about at a White House press conference?

I have [not at a White House press conference] on more than one occasion, and it brings a point to mind. “Are we so dependant on our mobile devices [phones] that we disregard some basic etiquette concerning their use, or is it just absent mindedness?”.

Of course many of us go through our daily routine with an always on mobile, face facts, we need to be connected, but consider the  ramifications in some situations.

Think about this, if you were a press secretary for the president of the US, your reaction to the first interruption was reasonable, the second really deserved a secret service takedown!

Consider how, where and why you use your mobile in relation to the situation you are in, I implore you!

 

White House confiscates hack’s handset " Register Hardware

MyPhone Mobile Client gets an Update!

Just a quick heads up, the mobile client for Microsoft’s MyPhone service, got an update today. There aren’t any obvious differences, except doing multiple syncs with the service are remembered and get quicker.

Which probably means that using the scheduling option, is more of a viable choice now, consuming much less data.

As for the online portal, it seems a little better at the moment, but it is time intensive to archive all of your data there, a great thing would be a ‘select all’ option for archiving your data. Nice to see though that MS are continuing to improve, what is intended to be an integral service in their ongoing mobile development.

All you have to do to get the update is open the client on your phone and sync, at the end of synchronisation you  will get an update message, you have a choice to delay the update as well.

Thanks to @EdHans for the news!

Dell SmartPhone, get’s a resounding Meh!

Mediocrity, is not going to get you a foothold in the smart phone market! Relying on the reputation of a previous, market leading PDA, that was unglamorously discontinued, Dell have been rejected in their WinMo Phone efforts.

Whether it be, that they don’t have a design innovation powerpack, they can’t come up with anything that supercedes the current HTC designs for devices, maybe they have left  their run a bit to late?

According to a January report by the Wall Street Journal, Dell was set to announce a customizable Windows Mobile smartphone that would be available with or without a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and would also be offered with Google’s Android Linux operating system. Dell representatives spent much of last year meeting with suppliers of phone components, phone software companies, and Asian phone manufacturers, the publication added.

I know there are plenty of Axim users out there that would like to see that excellence transferred to a converged device.

Dell probably shot themselves in the foot, when they discontinued the axim, at windows mobile 5, trying to recover now with a smart phone , that isn’t budget priced and top of the range available, will not do them any good.

Even if Dell release a WinMo phone, it would have to be phenomenal to out do  the latest HTC devices. 

The most of the news goes, ” No Carriers are interested in subsidising a Dell device”.

May be that Dell drove HTC in the past, but HTC has kept in touch with the  mobile market, and have adapted appropriately.

Even though I would love a Dell Axim Phone, it seems they have missed the boat, there are major issues, to  be dealt with. Price, and development?

Basically it seems like Dell have missed the boat, and where once they were market leaders, they took a hiatus, and lost their momentum. Will a Dell Smart Phone sell/ materialise?

Quick Look: Phone Genius from PanoramicSoft

  For most of my time using Windows Mobile, I’ve preferred an integrated PIM management solution, but lately I’ve been looking to some of the more finger friendly solutions, to solve this information management problem. Most of these I would describe as PIM pods, they focus on a particular aspect of your personal information, and bring a slick look to that particular information.

Well, Phone Genius from Panoramicsoft is a new application from a little known company, [I had never heard of them before], that delivers a Contact/Call management program, that I’ve taken quite a liking to.

It’s a nice package with a great today screen plug-in and lots of smooth animated transitions, as well as an eye pleasing look! Let’s go a little deeper, shall we?

Motorola, does a Chunky Soup, Mobile Phone!

I’m a bit oblivious to the rugged mobile phone market, and the only analogy I can think of to illustrate the difference between the consumer mobile phone, and the rugged outdoor industrial phone is soup. You know, you get the refined, blended, processed soup that your not sure exactly what’s in it, and the chunky version that has no secrets. Chunky soup, has large bits that you can identify, and like or dislike as is your want. Although it reveals all, it is substantial and comforting, reassuring if you will.

That which a rugged mobile phone attempts to be, no frills, but it is a device you can rely upon!

Motorola have released a pair of qwerty based, rugged, windows mobile devices this week that meet the bill, a familiar form factor from Moto, reminiscent of their earlier Q devices, with maybe a Humvee take on a handset!

Hit this link for the full Press

My Phone Client gets an Update!

If you’re like me. and have tried the Windows My Phone service out a little bit, but decided that it’s still a bit half baked, undercooked, to be a viable stand alone syncing service for your WinMo phone you probably didn’t set it to update automatically. Besides the fact that you are going to need an unlimited data plan, to support this function, there might be a few tricks that you are missing if you don’t manually sync regularly. One feature that a lot of people have missed is the fact that any updates to the phone side app, are notified, applied at the end of the syncing process.

Now this is not insider info, I noted a tweet this afternoon from @MSMyPhone, dropped the information, so I manually synced when I got home and Viola, an update to be sure. Not sure what it fixes exactly, and the only thing I could find about it at the MyPhone Blog or user forum was this mention,

The update fixes an issue with regards to syncing documents to the device.
Please install the update and everything would work fine.
Thanks
Ravi
Microsoft My Phone Team
Update: http://myphoneteam.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!500D40C76E07BE24!192.entry

So there you have it, you know as much as I do about this now 

GD910 Watch Phone From LG

OK, this has officially become the next phone I want, if it’s waterproof, meat proof, food proof, and generally anything icky proof, that I end up up to my elbows in during my working week.

Even though some sort of two way wrist communicator if you think has been touted since the sixties, and thought a sci-fi creation, they have been making advancements in the technology. If you think about the evolution of the mobile phone, they started off huge, because that’s all they could be, but the trend in development led to miniaturisation, and in the mid to late nineties, cells almost became inconvenient to use because they became so small. Some how, we have come to a compromise format for mobile devices that takes in to account, a useable web access, multimedia device featuring all of the mobile phones usability. I’d still like that in a watch sized unit though!

I’ve got a thing for a good watch, and if this thing performs, I want it, or at least to trial it, Are you hearing me LG?

GD910 Watch phone | The Official Blog of LG

An Aussie Android Phone, Pre-Order Available!

Not that I’m writing a Christmas wish list or anything [*cough* Ahem] but earlier on in the year I talked a bit skeptically about an Australian company that promised an Android flavoured device by Christmas, for a phenomenally low price. Well it seems like they have sort of, in a round about way, done it.

I think this is cheating just a little bit, you can pre-order now, “Before Christmas” but the phone won’t ship until the end of January…   Clever bit of spin really

Microsoft SmartPhone, The Rumour Mill!

Well this one has been going around for ages, that Micro$oft would eventually come up with it’s own hardware to deliver it’s Windows Mobile OS on, and somehow couple it with the Zune MP3 player to create the ultimate WinMo device. I always find myself having a little chuckle at the cynical optimism of tech writers, whether they be from large syndicated news networks, or rather less well known publications.

To set the stage, a blast from the past, that did nothing to dampen the rumours of a Micro$oft WinMo phone

Albeit a rather tongue in cheek look at a Micro$oft device, more of a boomerang than a sleek phone, there is still a lot of wondering and speculation as to whether Micro$oft will ever release a mobile device, or Zune Phone. A post earlier in the week at CNBC.com, seems to suggest that this is actually about to happen, and soon.

The Oyster Opens, New Pearl…Flip

It was code named the kickstart, and it has on release on T-Mobile become the Pearl Flip. Now I would not think this is a bad marketing move, because we all know the pearl as a thing of beauty. Now most of us would know the build and design of the Moto Razr, which was an innovator for it’s time, but the recent regurgitation’s of the device have not really delivered.

So we now come to the first “flip” phone from BB, (BlackBerry). I can’t tell you much about this device, but it looks like something I’d want.

 So yo can check out the BB Pearl Flip at this link

This is probably the most anticipated handset of the near future, and it’s here.

There’s a video link as well

Video

A lot of people have been waiting for this device, and I would like to get my hands on it as well.

Check out the full specs here