Pages Tagged “Phone”
Reviews
- Fossify Contacts ★★★★☆ Basic, privacy-respecting contacts app for Android that works with all contacts accounts on your phone.
- Fossify Phone ★★★½☆ Minimalist dialer app for the actual phone part of your smartphone, with basic call blocking. Doesn’t provide all the transcription and screening that Google’s app does, but it’s also not sending your call activity to the cloud.
- Samsung Galaxy S4 (Phone) ★★★★★ Much as I like newer phones, there are a few things that I really miss about the S4, especially the ergonomics.
- T-Life (T-Mobile Account App) ★★★☆☆ Handles most (but not all) account management actions, but it really wants to upsell new devices/services, and spams you on T-Mobile Tuesdays. Some phones that work fine on the network can’t run the app.
Blog Posts
- Overloaded Cell Network? Send a Text
BoingBoing explains why SMS messages are more likely to get through than phone calls or mobile data during a large emergency. (Short version: They’re async, so the phone or tower can retry later, and they’re momentary, so they don’t tie up a channel like a call would.) The article doesn’t bring it up, but I’d […]
- Not Sure About a Laptop Phone Dock
Techcitement writes: The Universal Lapdock Is Coming: Enter the ClamBook, the first Android-compatible product by iPad keyboard-case maker ClamCase. Using a single MHL cable…the ClamBook provides an Android-laptop experience delivered by your phone. The problem I have with this idea is that it’s essentially a second device, but one that can’t be used without the […]
- G2 Battery Drain, Google Maps & GPS (Update: Wi-Fi)
I finally got hit by the mysterious battery drain that’s been plaguing G2 Android phones. Here’s what I think is happening.
- GPS Navigation Convert (Sort of)
After avoiding GPS navigation for years, I’ve discovered something I like about it: avoiding traffic congestion.
- If This Were a Real Emergency, You’d Be Dead By Now
If a phone menu is going to remind callers that 911 is a better call to make in an emergency, shouldn’t it say so BEFORE a 5-minute authentication, not after?
- Links: Yen Droid Mobile Woot Quake!
I’ve always wondered how the name of Japan’s currency ended up meaning “craving” or desire in English. It turns out to be coincidence, probably from the Chinese yáhn or yin, “craving.” Word of the Day: yen. TweetUp acquires Twidroid and changes its name to Twidroyd “to ensure minimal confusion with products from Lucas Films.” Fortunately […]
- National Park Service vs. Robots From Space
If you went out to the movies in the US during 2009, there’s a good chance you saw a turn-off-your-phone PSA in which a movie about “robots from space” tries to negotiate blowing up Mount Rushmore. In a case of life imitating art, the National Park Service is currently battling Transformers 3 — a movie […]
- G1 Will Get Android 2.1 After All (Update: No)
Android and Me is reporting that all Android phones in the U.S. will get Android 2.1 updates — even the G1 — but that they may be missing some features and some models will need to be wiped as part of the installation. That makes sense, because it would allow developers to reassign some of […]
- Nexus One Thoughts
Google’s Nexus One could well be my next phone…but I’m not ready to give up my physical keyboard just yet.
- First Look Through Google Goggles
I tried out Google’s new Goggles app. Basically it lets you use the camera on an Android phone to do an image-based search. The examples include landmarks, book covers, artwork, logos, contact info, and places. So I played with it for a bit at home tonight. It’s good at picking out book covers and logos, […]
- There’s a Slogan for That
“There’s a ___ for that” is the new “Got ___?”
- G1: No Android 2 for You!
Early reports say that Android 2.0 won’t fit on the T-Mobile G1. My reaction is mixed: Sure, you drop old hardware eventually, but it’s only been a year.
- Droidmark
I wonder if Lucasfilm will try to assert trademark over the Motorola/Verizon Droid?
- Frustrations (And a Few Bright Spots)
Hard disks should not sound like buzz saws. Slashdot article “FOSS Sexism Claims Met With Ire & Denial”…gets met with ire & denial. *headdesk* Listening to lightsaber sounds from across the office. I think my coworker w/ the new Android phone found an app for that. Vertical Horizon’s Burning the Days is growing on me, […]
- Android FTW!
I wasn’t planning to have a donut today, but T-Mobile just sent Android 1.6 to my phone. I’ve had it almost a year now, and it’s actually a better phone now than it was when I bought it! How cool is that?
- Smartphone Radiation
Wow! Glad I didn’t move to a MyTouch! The G1 isn’t in the Top 10 Radiation-Emitting smartphones list, but it’s not exactly low either. The MyTouch, on the other hand, is #1.
- G1 Nearing Upgrade Limits?
I love my T-Mobile G1, but it’s no secret that the phone has way too little internal memory. Now Engadget reports that the limited memory could prevent the G1 from running future versions of the Android operating system. You can add plenty of data storage (images, music, app data) by dropping in any size Micro-SD […]
- Trying Sherpa for Android
Testing out Sherpa on my Android G1 phone. Not terribly impressed.
- Looking for a Good Android Twitter App
I love Twidroid, but I’m looking for a good secondary app – I’ve tried I Tweet, Twitly, Loquacious, Twit2Go and Twitta, but none of them quite make it.
- Why I Want a Netbook (and why I’m not letting myself get one)
I’ve started seriously thinking about a netbook to get around a few issues with posting by phone, but I know I’d only use it once a year.
- Goodbye Ed and the :-) Key
Pair of spam subjects: “Say goodbye to ED” and “A person is missing!” Well, yeah, after Ed left… Just noticed the android virtual keyboard has a key for 🙂 when typing text messages.
- Blocking the Impulse Buy: Shazam, Amazon MP3 Store and Android
How I *almost* bought an album from my phone immediately after hearing a song on the radio, and what obstacles stopped me.
- Cloudy Connection
A cloud device in an area with a flaky connection really underscores the importance of offline sync.
- Reading Comics on the Phone: Hexed on the G1
A look at the way iVerse’s comic book reader works on the Android-based market, and how well it translates comics from print.
- Always a Newer Model
*sigh* I’m mostly happy with my G1, but I just read about the upcoming Samsung Memoir, which is the first phone I’ve seen that really takes the approach I’ve been looking for in terms of photo capability: instead of a phone that’s also a camera, it’s a camera that’s also a phone. Even the press […]
- A Month with the G1
It’s been a little over a month since I upgraded to a T-Mobile G1. Overall I’ve been very happy with it. The Internet-related features are great, I’ve gotten used to how most of the functions work, and I’ve tried it out under various circumstances and played with a bunch of applications. The only problems I […]
- Roam If Your Phone Wants To
A couple of days ago it was reported that, even with data disabled while roaming, the G1 still hits the internet. It turns out it was an edge case: his phone connected to T-Mobile UK and thought it wasn’t roaming, so it kept data active.
- Opera Mini on Android
Now there’s timing: Just two days after I bought a G1, Opera has released a beta of Opera Mini for the Android platform. You can find it in the Communications section of the Android Marketplace. Amazingly enough, on its first day out, it’s already #2 by popularity. For the most part I’m happy with the […]
- The G1: First Impressions
You may have noticed I’ve been looking for a smartphone for a while, and looking at the T-Mobile G1 more or less since it was announced. Well, I finally went for it. I was going through piles of papers on my desk and realized I had almost enough cashback bonus on one of my credit […]
- WiFi for the Con
I experimented a bit with posting from my phone, but it really isn’t sufficient for what I want to do. Fortunately SDCC is offering free Wi-Fi this year.
- Camera + Phone = ?
After looking at various smartphones (including the iPhone), I think I’ve figured out why I’m not satisfied with the camera features on any of them. They’re all phones that happen to feature cameras. I want a camera that happens to feature a phone. Update: a year later I found one, but I’d already bought a […]
- Where do you keep the euphemism?
Someone walked into the restroom talking on a cell phone, explaining, “it’s going to sound really bad now, because I’m in the executive washroom.” Executive washroom? Sure, if by “executive washroom” you mean first-floor lobby restroom that’s available to anyone who walks into the building. I couldn’t tell whether he was joking, or trying to […]
- Back to Basics: Phish by Phone
I just spotted a rather disturbing phishing message in (of all places) our abuse contact mailbox: Subject: Fraud Prevention Measures Dear customer! Due to high fraud activity we constantly increasing security level both for online banking and card transactions. In order to update our records you are required to call MBNA Card Service number at […]
- Just can’t win
This is a story on phone menus, though it applies to anything where the user interface can change. I phoned in a refill on a prescription this morning. The phone system lets you choose when you plan on picking it up, presumably so that the pharmacy can prioritize people who are coming in sooner. Generally, […]
- Cellular Palm Tree
The drawback of cellular phone technology is that you need to have transmitters everywhere. In a big city you can probably mount them on buildings, but in the suburbs, you just have to put up towers like you do for power lines and land-line phones. Every once in a while, someone decides to pretty things […]