(8 votes, average: 9.13 out of 10)
Loading ...ZTE D90: Heavy texting
We have the new ZTE D90 mobile phone in the office for a test drive, courtesy of Telus and ZTE. I’ve mentioned in this space that at its launch, it gave the impression of a heavy texter’s dream. So how’s the performance?
To review: The D90 has a Fastap keypads, meaning alpha characters are squeezed in between the number keys. You don’t have to press number keys multiple times to change letters, which is a pain in the back of the front in text-centric situations like entering e-mail addies and contact information and, well, text messaging. I’ve hated previous iterations for their clutter, but the D90 is a different animal. Read the rest of this entry »
Add to: del.icio.us | Digg IT | Furl | Google | magnolia | StumbleIT | Wink | Yahoo! Technorati
(1 votes, average: 8 out of 10) Loading ...Two lines, one phone, and too much in LD charges
Rogers Wireless launched its Second Voice Line Service this morning, offering two phone lines on a single cell phone. It’s aimed at the SMB owner-operator crowd, with several features to recommend it, and one that should make you think twice.
Irv Witte, Rogers Wireless’s vp of business marketing, demoed the service for me last week. Upside: Two separate lines means two separate voice mail greetings, one for business callers and one for personal calls; you needn’t carry two phones, and you save on some of the overhead (system access fees, etc.) that a second phone entails; documenting the cost of cell phone use for tax and expense purposes is easier, as the calls are billed to two separate numbers; and you can have numbers in two different area codes, if you so desire. Read the rest of this entry »
Add to: del.icio.us | Digg IT | Furl | Google | magnolia | StumbleIT | Wink | Yahoo! Technorati
(3 votes, average: 6.33 out of 10) Loading ...Paying the iBill
Schadenfreude isn’t really my bag, but after suffering through roughly a kajillion iPhone news releases, articles and analyses, I got a chuckle out of what appears to be the first pothole on the iPhone highway, even though it’s service provider AT&T Wireless with egg on face.
Apparently, the bills are huge. Not expensive. Just really, really long. New York Times blogger David Pogue’s bill came with pages and pages documenting Every. Single. Data. Transaction, almost on a kilobyte-by-kilobyte basis.
The opus sent to Pogue, however, was apparently not as magnum as that sent to graphic designer and blogger Justine Ezarik. Watch her open her iBill — all 300 pages – on YouTube.
E-billing, anyone?
On a completely unrelated note, here’s an experimental use of the Windows shutdown tone that bears looking into.
Add to: del.icio.us | Digg IT | Furl | Google | magnolia | StumbleIT | Wink | Yahoo! Technorati
(3 votes, average: 7 out of 10) Loading ...Browsing inside the iphone
By Joaquim P. Menezes -
Fans of HarperCollins’ Browse Inside say it’s quite different from a conventional e-book service.
Browse Inside allows consumers to digitally review the pages of books before making a purchase.
The New York Times describes it as “[replicating] in cyberspace the experience of going to a bookstore and flipping through a few pages before buying a book.”
I don’t quite agree.
Add to: del.icio.us | Digg IT | Furl | Google | magnolia | StumbleIT | Wink | Yahoo! Technorati
(2 votes, average: 9 out of 10) Loading ...Ok, we get it …
Appe head honcho Steve Jobs unveiled the new iMac this week, and though the improvements are largely incremental as opposed to the revolution that was the last generation, there’s lots to like — the US$200 price drop first and foremost. Apple has ditched the 17-inch version, offering only 20- and 24-inch models. It gives us a break from the steady diet of iPhone hype. And there’s lots of aluminium and glass — very sexy. (Somehow, though, I keep thinking of David Spade’s line on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, talking about Jennifer Aniston: “OK. We get it. You’re pretty.”)
It’s an all-in-one world, according to Jobs, and looking at the tangle of cables that supports my PC, I’m hoping someone on that side of the fence is listening.
But there was something amiss among the iMac and many iLife software announcements. What’s happened to the Mac Mini? Was Word 1 uttered about it on iMac day? I’ve always had a soft spot for The Littlest Mac. Apparently, Apple has quietly squeezed a few improvements into the Mini (the Web site refers to testing on preproduction machines in April 2007), but with none of the iMac fanfare.
Dell’s multicoloured laptops aside, Apple still seems to be the only computer company that’s taking the aesthetics of computing seriously.
Add to: del.icio.us | Digg IT | Furl | Google | magnolia | StumbleIT | Wink | Yahoo! Technorati
(3 votes, average: 8.67 out of 10) Loading ...A handset worth lusting after
Technology insists on doing this to me, and probably to you, too. You put off the new laptop or desktop purchase and watch the prices fall; you finally bite the bullet and make the buy; and a week later, something better/faster/cooler hits the market and makes you say, “Dammit, if I’d known …”
I broke down and bought a new cell phone last week, a U510 slider from Samsung. (Not that my previous phone was unsophisticated — it could make and take calls, and … well, actually, that’s about it.) It’s well spec’d for media, e-mail and Web access, quick snapshots and the like. It’s quite sexy in the way only a slider phone can be (have I perhaps been in this industry too long?). I was content.
Then I met this morning with representatives of ZTE Corp., the first mainland Chinese manufacturer to deliver a handset to the Canadian market. With the caveat that I haven’t had a full test-drive so I can’t tell you about call quality and the like, my once-over convinced me it’s worth lusting after. Read the rest of this entry »
Add to: del.icio.us | Digg IT | Furl | Google | magnolia | StumbleIT | Wink | Yahoo! Technorati
(2 votes, average: 9 out of 10) Loading ...Your future phone
Just basking in the afterglow of having bullied my cell carrier into a better rate and a better phone by threatening to go to the competition … Web surfing, streaming audio and TV, built-in camera (another excuse to keep me out of the gym).
In three to five years time when I’m ready for a new cell phone (provided, of course, this one doesn’t somehow end up in the toilet or washing machine, what will it look like? What functionality will it have? Research firm In-Stat has been looking into that question.
