The Wirelessinfo Blog

The holiday shopping season is nearly upon us and we here at Wirelessinfo.com are ready to help you find the best cell phones of the year to help you in your gift quests. Got someone on your list who wants the best phone for listening to music and watching video on the go? Or someone who needs to stay on top of lots of emails and keep a busy schedule organized? If so, we've got phones to recommend for you for these people and more - watch for our 2008 Select Awards first thing on Monday morning...

You can add two more states to the list of places you are officially not allowed to talk on your cell phone. Oregon and Washington have decided to add a no talking while driving rules in their states. Washington already had a no texting while driving rule and expected to add the no talking rule in July.

Teens are forever searching for an unbreakable cell phone, and thanks to Dutch researcher Paulette Prins, they may someday have their wish. In her latest research paper, she states that cell phones are vulnerable as they use silicon-based semiconductor chips instead of plastics.  The reason why is because most plastics are not good conductors of electricity.  However, newer materials have been developed that have a semi-crystalline or fixed ladder structure that should allow conductivity.  Using plastics for CMOS circuits is not a new idea, however, this has yet to be pursued for more complex circuitry. 

Our cell phones, for most of us, are more than just a convenience and have become a way of life.  I would rather forget my purse in the morning than my cell phone!  Just for kicks, today I went on a search for new and interesting things to make my cell phone do during the week. Here are some of them:

1) If you send a text message to GOOGL (46645) with a search term, the company will text you back with info.

2) Dial 1-800-555-TELL to listen to sports scores, entertainment news, weather, and much more!

3) Dial  1-800-FREE-411 if you are sick of paying $1 per 411 call to your mobile provider. 

4) I love this one!  If you leave your remote car door opener at home or have locked the second one in your car, just call home and hold your cell phone near the door while someone operates it.  Those who have tried this claim that it actually works. 

5) Even if your cell phone is locked, you can dial 112 in the event of an emergency and get through.

6) If you press 3370#, you will activate your phones battery reserve and get more talk time. 

The upcoming Motorola RAXR Maxx VE is a sweet little phone, and is now scheduled for release by Verizon Wireless on April 24th. 

From the press release:

Pricing and Availability
The MOTORAZR maxx Ve is available exclusively through Verizon Wireless. Customers may purchase the MOTORAZR maxx Ve for $199.99 after a $50 rebate and a new two-year customer agreement online at www.verizonwireless.com and at Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on April 24.

This great new phone features GPS capability with access to VZ NavigatorSM for driving directions and location information, stereo Bluetooth audio capabilities, a 2.0 megapixel auto focus camera, and over 60MB of internal memory.  Weighing only 4 ounces, it is also sleek and "sexy".

The teen market is where most of the new cell phones are aimed, and the Motorola SLVR is no exception.  My stepson's teen friends all have "cool" sleek looking phones.  Ryan Sefton of Cupertino,CA loves his SLVR - when asked why, his first thoughts were because it was "indestructable". He has dropped it many times,and it still works like a dream. The keypad allows easy texting and he has had very few dropped calls.

He really loves the MP3 player built-in, and the SLVR comes with iTunes. Call quality is crystal clear, and he loves the Cingular service.  The built-in VGA camera was "good, for a cell phone camera and about what you would expect".

The only drawback to the phone was the ear buds included in the package, which weren't quite so indestructable!

A new bill designed to keep cell phones from being a distraction to new drivers just passed the Arkansas Senate - bill SB19 is now on its way to the House.  Authored by Senator Kim Hendren (R-Gravette), it passed by a vote of 27 to 2. 

Teens driving and using cell phones is already illegal in Colorado, and many other states are soon to follow suit.  A recent study by Ford shows why this law is a good idea - this chart shows how many dangerous events were missed by both teen and adult drivers while talking on a cell phone.  54% of teens missed a potentially dangerous event while dialing, and this study was conducted using a hands free headset.   

This week, Gizmodo is running a survey to get female opinions of the new Philips 598, which is supposedly targeted to female users. Although this phone was supposedly created by a woman, the female responses in the blogosphere have been less than kind when reviewing it.   The Philips 598 contains a body weight index and a basal metabolic rate monitor for weight control.  

From the HTL Lounge:

One female commenter said, "As a woman, this phone does nothing for me. I don't need a phone version of a Cosmo mag telling me I'm too fat."

I agree.  My opinion as a woman is that it is basic black and not at all streamlined like the LG Chocolate or other cool phones on the market.  I can't remember ever having lunch with my friends and comparing basal metabolic rates, can you?  And my bathroom scale tells me more than I want to know about my weight every morning.

The results of the Gizmodo survey will be quite interesting to see.  Most women really just want a sleek, great looking phone that WORKS, and is easy to use. 

From the same country that wouldn't allow me past immigration without showing a written invitation from my company, and then wouldn't allow me out until they had reviewed all 100 pages of my engineering notes comes a surprising ruling.   The Jerusalem district court ruled yesterday that a judge must sign and warrant and a skilled computer operator must do the investigation before a cell phone can be examined as evidence.  The rationale is that cell phones have become very sophisticated and are now similar to computers.  Warrants must be obtained before examining computers today in most countries, and it is true that cell phones are now used in a much more personal way than ever before.

According to Haaretz.com,

In making the decision, Judge Hana Ben-Ami said 'there is a great deal of similarity from the point of view of the rationale behind the special law governing computers, between the computer and the cell phone in terms of the information stored and the way they operate.'

Mobile phone users store personal photos, address books, text messages, and voice memos on their phones - which was not true when most of the current laws were put into effect. 

It will be very interesting to see if other countries follow suit on this ruling.  

[Photo via Flickr]

24-yr-old journalism and communications student Zhang Yi is a mobile phone customer that cell phone OEMs only dream of - in a nine year period, he has switched cell phones 500 times!   A student at Nanjing University, he received his first mobile phone as a gift from his father in 1998 when cell phones were an expensive commodity.   He has kept one cell phone for six months, but reportedly got rid of one after just twelve hours!   The one he got from his father?   According to Zhang, "The phone had limited functions. To me it was only a pager and I got rid of it in less than two months,"

Zhang's attitude is perhaps a bit extreme, but it reflects the constant search for mobile nirvana by many of the country's youth.  According to TMC, the total Chinese consumer electronics market is expected to reach $94B in 2007. Much is this is driven by Chinese youth, who exhibit an insatiable desire for the latest and greatest in MP3 players, cell phones, ring tones, and mobile media. 

As for Zhang, he is still not satisfied.  "I still haven't been able to find one that really suits me," he said.  Cell phone OEMs of the world, we suggest you take that as a challenge!