Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Google Phone by T-Mobile

In an article titled Report: T-Mobile to Announce Google Phone Sept. 23 PCWorld.com is reporting that the NEW Google phone will soon be on the market.
T-Mobile USA will become the first company in the world to announce a mobile phone based on Google's Android OS at a New York press conference Sept. 23, the New York Times reports, citing T-Mobile.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Troubleshooting the Apple iPhone resources.

I've been searching for the best ways to troubleshoot problems with the new iPhone.

Here is what I have come up with so far;

A good place to start is Apple.com support.

MacWorld.com also has a good troubleshooting article, titled Troubleshooting iPhone and iPod touch issues. From the article;
In increasing order of difficulty, here are the things I do to try to recover from the various iPhone 2.0.x maladies I’ve experienced:

  • Restart the iPhone. Press and hold the power button until you see the “slide to power off” display, then do just that. Let the phone site for a couple seconds, then power it back on. I’ve found this is generally effective at solving excess battery consumption, as well as the slow iPhone problem. It only takes about a minute, at most, to reboot your iPhone, so it’s by far the easiest thing to try.

  • Reinstall a third-party application. If one particular third-party program is giving you troubles, you can try reinstalling it. First delete it from the iPhone by tapping and holding on the program’s icon, then clicking the “x” button to delete it. In iTunes, re-download the program (if you’ve bought it once, you can do so for free), then sync your iPhone and install the new copy of the program. Warning: You will lose all data you saved with the program—text you added, high scores you set, progress through the game that was saved, etc.

  • Restore the iPhone, including its backup. Unfortunately, this painful solution may wind up being your most-used troubleshooting technique. If you’re experiencing issues with multiple applications, or with Apple’s applications, or if neither of the above steps solve your problem, then a restore may be in your future. Before you restore (as explained above), however, sync your iPhone one more time and let it run a full backup (assuming your iPhone is in a usable state). This way, at least, you’ll be able to save any of the data you’ve stored with your third party programs. After the iPhone’s software is restored, iTunes will then offer you the chance to restore from the new backup.

  • Restore the iPhone, start from scratch. If you try the restore method above and find you still have the same issues as before, then you’ll have to use this most painful troubleshooting method. Restore the phone as above, but do not restore your backup. It’s possible that one of the files in the backup is corrupted, and that’s what’s causing your issues. Instead of restoring the backup, tell iTunes to treat your iPhone as new. Give it a name, reinstall all of your programs from scratch, and then sync your music, videos, and other content. This is as close as you can come to starting with a factory-fresh iPhone, and represents your best chance at stability—at least for a little while.

TUAW.com calls their troubleshooting guide iPhone Troubleshooting: How to Restart, quit frozen apps and Reset iPhone.

MobileMe users can find troubleshooting guide lines in an article titled MobileMe: Troubleshooting iPhone or iPod touch sync issues at Apple.com.

To get some of the most up to date info Apple.com's iPhone discussions board is invaluable.

In closing I was not really trying to be comperhensive here, I just wanted to provide a few good places online to go if you are having problems with your iPhone.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Can You Make Money off iPhone Games?

Well, according to an article in BusinessWeek.com titled How to Make Money off Free iPhone Games a company called Illusion Labs is doing just that.
Illusion Labs was started a year ago by Carl Loodberg and Andreas Alptun, who had worked together at another Swedish company called TAT, designing software for companies including Samsung and Nvidia (NVDA). They set up their own company so they could concentrate on developing applications specifically for Apple's iPhone. "When the iPhone came out, we were excited about the big screen, the graphics chip, and the good components," says Loodberg. "We thought it was an opportunity too big to pass up."
The companies first game is one of the more popular pieces of software for the iPhone. Called Labyrinth, it is a digital version of the old wooden box on which you maneuver a small silver ball through a maze while avoiding cut-out holes and other obsticals that the ball could fall in. The game is available for free from Apple's iTunes, and is estimated as being downloaded 80,000 times a day.

Friday, August 08, 2008

Top Books on SmartPhones

I am dismayed by the fact that some of my friends and family do not know how to get the best out of their smartphones. I guess it is the geek in me.

I think that best thing to do when faced with a new and complicated piece of high tech electronics, like a smartphone, is to study the litrature that comes with your phone and also read books devoted to your phone.

Here are some books that I think will help smartphone owners get more out of their phones.

Taking Your Iphone to the Max

The Rough Guide to the iPhone

Now You Know Treo 700w Smartphone

BlackBerry Hacks

101 Cool Smartphone Techniques

Smartphone & Pocket PC

Nokia Smartphone Hacks

Sunday, August 03, 2008

How to protect yourself when buying Cell phones online.

With the economy being down right now and gas prices being so high, I have been writing in some of my other blogs advocating that shopping online, is a good way to buy and save money. You can save on gas and other cost of shopping by doing it online. This is also true for your cell phone needs.

This includes the phones themselves as well as accessories that you may need. Batteries, chargers, cases, head phones, earbuds and other items that let you get the most out of your phone.

And while you can get great deals, and save money you want to protect yourself while shopping online. Please consider the following

1. Always, always follow the adage, buyer beware, when shopping online for anything. If it were not important, they would not have a cool Latin phrase for it, "Caveat emptor."

2. Understand what can go wrong;

- fakes
- refurbished sold as new
- water damaged
- item does not work properly
- what happens of something goes wrong

3. How to limit problems

- Shop
- compare
- know what you should be getting
- read the ad
- contact buyer
- ask questions

4. What to do if there are problems

- contact buyer
- request replacement or refund
- Use site resolution systems

The best protection for you when shopping online is knowledge. Know what you are getting into before you buy. Beware and communicate with the seller first, shop at merchants who have a history of good sales. This will help to make your online purchases good ones and allow you to be protected.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

Cnet reviews Smartphones

Cnet reviews.com has a very interesting article for anyone shopping for a new iPhone titled Down the line: Smartphones, by Senior Associate Editor Bonnie Cha.

Ms. Cha does a go job of giving a run down on the latest and greatest offerings from the various players. Phones covered in this article include the RIM BlackBerry Bold, Nokia N96, and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 among others.

The chart that accompanies the article give a good side by side comparison of the phones. The only criticism that I have is that a lot of the info has not be released yet, but that is up to the manufacturers.