HTC Titan hands-on and first look

Courtesy of MobileBurn.com

The HTC Titan smartphone is one of two new Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) devices that HTC have unveiled today in various locations across Europe. The Titan features a huge 4.7-inch WVGA resolution display and an 8 megapixel camera with a 28mm lens and f2.2 aperture for wide angle and low light photography. It can also capture 720p HD video, and has a speedy 1.5GHz processor and 16GB of built-in storage, as well as Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi, and DLNA support.



NerdBoyTV NOTE: I'm really rooting for Windows Phone 7 (Mango) and THIS is a beeeeeeeeeeautiful phone. If T-Mobile carries it, I'm gonna go for it!

The Best Android Phones

By Wendy Sheehan Donnell, PC Magazine

It's hard to believe that it's been just three years since Google's open-source Android mobile operating system hit the scene. When the first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, was released, the mobile landscape looked very different. Most people carried simple handsets that focused on making calls. If you were lucky, you could listen to music or play games on your mobile phone.

Back then, you didn't have to have a smartphone that ran thousands of apps to let you, in the palm of your hand, do many of the things your computer could do. Apps weren't even a thing yet. Apple had only released the iPhone 3G and launched its groundbreaking App Store a couple of months earlier.

It was the introduction of Android that helped propel the app-based smartphone to what it is today. The thing Android offered, which Apple's iPhone couldn't, was choice. Since it was an open-source platform, several hardware manufacturers could use the OS on their handsets, and a variety of wireless carriers could offer those phones—and they did.

A year after Android was released, in the U.S. there was a single Apple iPhone on a single carrier, but there were eight different Android handsets with varying form factors available on three of the four major carriers. Today, you can find a variety of Android phones on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless. Even the little guys like Cricket and Virgin Mobile offer Android options. According to Comscore, Android enjoys 33 percent of the U.S. smartphone market today.

That's a lot of phones to choose from. To come up with our list, we've chosen two winners for each of the four major carriers, one for each of four smaller carriers, and, if you're contract-phobic, the best unlocked handset. If you've settled on Android as your mobile platform, these phones are your best bets—for now, that is. At this rate of growth, we can assure you that there's another great 'Droid right around the corner.

myTouch 4G vs iPhone 4 - Browser Speed Test

via WireFly.com

This is a browser speed test that compares the T-Mobile myTouch 4G with the Apple iPhone 4. For the best prices on the myTouch 4G, visit WireFly.com.

Spotlight on MyTouch 4G, Google+, and Harry Potter

Google invites NerdBoyTV to try Google+
Just got my invite from Google to tryout their possible "Facebook killer," Google+. This CNET video reviews some of the key highlights. You may want to sign-up to try it, too.



NerdBoyTV Smartphone Spotlight: MyTouch 4G
Because my longtime T-Mobile contract is coming to an end (and my teens have abandoned them for Verizon), I've been offered a pretty tempting offer to keep Brandon's service with the speedy MyTouch 4G. What do YOU think?



The Final Harry Potter Movie Coming!
If you haven't purchased your tickets for the 7/15 midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, you better hurry. I just bought mine yesterday and now the show is SOLD OUT. The movie trailer looks AWESOME!

T-Mobile loses more subscribers in fourth quarter

By Technology & science - Wireless - msnbc.com

NerdBoyTV NOTE: Hate to say it, but they're gonna lose more now that my daughter wants to switch to my Verizon to get the iPhone 4! The problem is they simply don't have that "IT" phone to sell. Sprint has the EVO, AT&T has the iPhone, and Verizon has the iPhone now plus lots of cool Android phones. I'm not exactly sure WHAT T-Mobile anchor phone is...Galaxy? Optimus? Blackberry?

"Subscribers on contract-based cell phone plans hung up on T-Mobile USA in record numbers in the fourth quarter, as it continues to lose the battle against larger carriers.

T-Mobile, the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the U.S., on Friday said it lost 318,000 subscribers on contract-based plans in the October to December period.

The three larger carriers — AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. — added subscribers under contract in the period. For Sprint, it was a reversal of many years of losses.

T-Mobile said the decline was due to competition and to revised credit standards for customers.

T-Mobile compensated by selling wholesale access to its network to resellers, which meant that overall, it lost only 23,000 subscribers in the quarter. But wholesale subscribers bring far less revenue.

T-Mobile USA's new CEO, Philipp Humm, has orders from German parent company Deutsche Telekom AG to stem the loss of subscribers and increase revenue by 2014.

The percentage of contract-based subscribers leaving T-Mobile every month, a measure known as 'churn,' was 2.5 percent in the quarter, about the same as a year ago but higher than in previous quarters of 2010.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Samsung Galaxy 4G Landing on T-Mobile

Samsung Galaxy 4G Landing on T-Mobile - Yahoo! News: "CES might be over, but the 4G phones keep trickling in. As a part of its aggressive 4G plans, T-Mobile announced that the Samsung Galaxy 4G will launch in the first half of 2011. But will it have the specs of the hot next-gen Galaxy phones? It doesn't seem like it.

Specs for the Samsung Galaxy 4G on T-Mobile aren't clear, but we do know that it will have a Super AMOLED display--not the newest Super AMOLED Plus display. At CES, Verizon unveiled an unnamed LTE phone with a 4.3-inch display as well as a phone on AT&T, the Infuse 4G, with a monstrous 4.5-inch display. According to Samsung, Super AMOLED Plus displays have an increased number of sub-pixels by 50 percent and perform even better in bright light than the first-gen Super AMOLED displays.

On the Samsung Mobile website, the company is trumpeting the arrival of 'something big' on Feb. 13, which coincidentally is the week of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The rumor mill is buzzing about what sort of specs the next generation of Samsung Galaxy phones will boast. A dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera and built-in NFC support are just a few of the exciting features the next-gen phones could sport.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

A brief history of Android phones

CLICK to see list on CNET Blogs: "More than two years after the birth of the T-Mobile G1, the world's first Android smartphone, we pause to take a look back at what the little green dude has given us. Frankly, we were a little floored when we assembled all the U.S. handset releases into one list. Sure, we've known that the OS has been very busy, particularity in the last year, but we really had no idea just how busy it was. And if we expanded the list beyond handsets not with U.S. carriers, it would be even longer.

Remember that it wasn't so long ago when Android was just a concept. And not long before that, the only android we knew was Data on 'Star Trek.' But now as its market share continues to grow and the OS has landed in the tablet space, Android has emerged as a powerhouse in the mobile space.

Editors' note: This list is current as of December 10, 2010. For brevity's sake, we've focused only on models sold by U.S. carriers. We've also included upcoming handsets that carriers have officially announced.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

The first Windows Phone 7 apps you should grab

CLICK to read article on Technolog

"Today is when the first Windows Phone 7 models go on sale — the Samsung Focus at AT&T and the HTC HD7 at T-Mobile. As we've discussed, they're powerhouse phones with gorgeous screens and Microsoft's surprisingly nice 'glance and go' operating system designed in the age of Facebook. But what matters once you get the phone is what apps to download. There are currently about 1,600 apps in the Marketplace, most of them free or dirt cheap.

There's already a lot of cr'apps in there, the standard lineup of flashlights, tip calcs, stopwatches, unit converters, and of course fart emulators. And because you can read what system resources each app needs to access, you can spot some shady ones too. A 'simple and fun finger drawing tool' that needs access to 'owner identity' and 'phone calls'? I'm sure there's a plausible explanation, but I am gonna pass!

There are also a lot of things still missing. There's no Pandora. There's no Kindle, Nook or Kobo e-book readers. (Update: Amazon stated about a week ago that it would be first to WP7, available 'later this year.') There's just one instant messaging app, and it's for Windows Live Messenger. The cooking and wine categories are barren — no Epicurious or BigOven, and no wine reference databases. Kid entertainment — that is, edutainment — is totally missing. And I don't see Bank of America or any other leading American banks with apps, nor do I see Mint.com. (USAA and Geico have apps though.)

There are a ton of games, and we've reviewed many here: Windows Phone 7 games: The good, the bad and the weird

What I did was sift through most of the non-game apps, and put together a list of the ones you definitely need, plus a few premium ones that you may want to buy.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

T-Mobile's Sidekick to ride off into the sunset

T-Mobile's Sidekick to ride off into the sunset - Yahoo! News

Once the darling of the youth set and a regular on the red carpet (Paris Hilton, anyone?), the Sidekick has gradually fallen behind the times, and T-Mobile has just announced that it'll stop selling the handset as of Friday.

But while the carrier is holding out hope for the "next chapter" of the brand, maybe it's time to simply give the Sidekick the 21-gun salute it deserves.

As of Friday morning, the most recent Sidekick — last year's LX, which was (believe it or not) the first Sidekick to support 3G — was still on sale, for a deeply discounted $49.99.But after Friday, the Sidekick will disappear from T-Mobile's online and retail stores, the carrier said. (You might find a few stragglers at third-party resellers.)

If you've still got a Sidekick, don't worry — T-Mobile says it'll still offer service and support for your phone. And it coyly adds that we should watch for "the next chapter of our storied Sidekick franchise."

Your Cell Phone Company's Dirty Little Secret

Yahoo! Finance - Business Finance, Stock Market, Quotes, News: "Mobile phone companies have been lauded for slashing the cost of unlimited voice plans, but many wireless customers' monthly bills are actually going to get a bit more expensive.

Last month, both Verizon and AT&T lowered their unlimited voice plans by $30 to $70 per month. Sprint recently unveiled a plan that allows unlimited calls to any mobile device for $60 per month. That brought the three biggest mobile carriers' prices closer to rival T-Mobile, which offers a $60 per month unlimited plan, and in line with a slew of low-cost carriers that offer similar plans for about $40 per month.

But as the wireless giants go around touting their lower voice prices, data plan costs have been quietly moving higher for some non-smartphone customers.

It began with Verizon Wireless. Last month, that company began requiring certain non-smartphone customers to subscribe to a data plan that costs at least $10 per month. Mobile experts believe Verizon's move marks the first step in a larger trend to make up for carriers' lost revenue from voice.

'There's a big shift going on among mobile companies, in which there is a price reduction on voice and an increased emphasis on selling and requiring data services,' said Dan Hays, partner at PRTM. 'It is like a dirty little secret.'"

Nexus One Price Drops for Some T-Mobile Upgrades

Nexus One Price Drops for Some T-Mobile Upgrades - PC World: "Google and T-Mobile have changed the Nexus One pricing policy, slashing $100 off the price of the handset for certain existing customers, T-Mobile has confirmed. Eligible upgraders should now be able to get the Nexus One for $279 instead of $379, and Google will give refunds to those who paid the old price.

Complaints about the high upgrade cost for Nexus One on T-Mobile drove down the price of the handset with $100, and the cut is effective immediately for eligible T-Mobile customers who want to upgrade to the Nexus One.

T-Mobile customer service confirmed the price drop and gave details on the eligibility for this offer, which is slightly complicated. Firstly, you must qualify for a 'full grade' upgrade, meaning you must have had service with T-Mobile for at least 22 months since your last upgrade or new contract.

Also, the $100 price cut is available only for 'individual' and 'regular' customers, meaning those with family account packages would not qualify. No business account users qualify either, T-Mobile sales representatives sanexus oneid. If you are unsure whether you are eligible for the offer, your best bet is to check with T-Mobile customer care (800-937-8997)."

Google hopes to change wireless retail game with Nexus One

By Ben Patterson : Yahoo! Tech (CLICK to read more)

"It wasn't much of a secret, really, but the sleek, Android-powered Nexus One is finally here, and yes: you can buy it directly from Google, over the Web. As expected, the unlocked, no-contract Nexus One will cost you a pretty penny, but subsidized versions will also be available from T-Mobile and ... what's this, Verizon Wireless? You betcha.

Announced this afternoon during a press conference at Google's Mountain View headquarters, the Nexus One (designed by phone maker HTC under Google's strict supervision) is available for purchase right now on Google's new Web store rather than through a carrier—a twist that some observers see as a paradigm shift in the wireless market, where the balance of power is usually tipped in the carrier's favor.

Then again, Google is sticking with the practice of charging an arm and a leg for an unlocked, no-contract handset. If you want it unlocked for use with any SIM card and without a contract, the phone will set you back a cool $530. Here in the U.S., you'll be able to use the Nexus One with either an AT&T or T-Mobile SIM card; that said, AT&T users will only be able to tap into the carrier's EDGE data network, while T-Mobile customers can use both EDGE and 3G.

Another option is to opt for a traditional two-year contract with T-Mobile, which brings the price of the Nexus One down to $180. That detail has already been well leaked; one of the surprises Tuesday, however, was the news that Verizon Wireless in the U.S. (which currently has the Android-powered Motorola Droid) and Vodafone in Europe are also on board with the Nexus One, with versions of the handset for those networks due in the spring. Interesting. (I should note, though, that the current unlocked Nexus One will only work on GSM-based networks, not CDMA carriers like Verizon or Sprint; I'm assuming that the eventual Nexus One for Verizon will be a CDMA phone.)"

SHOW #85 - NerdBoyTV: Cool Cellies, Microsoft LifeCam

In this episode of NerdBoyTV, Ryan Yee shares the three "coolest" smartphones that came out over the holidays (Droid, Blackberry Bold 9700, Motorola Cliq) and Microsoft's LifeCam Cinema webcam.

Motorola Cliq: First Smartphone with Social Skills

NerdBoyTV NOTE: Picked up this T-Mobile phone for my 12-year-old son, Brandon, who is VERY well-connected online. He loves the phone and I found this video review on YouTube to pass along to you. Good value and definitely a "fun" smartphone!

BlackBerry Bold 9700 hands-on video

Take a video tour round the BlackBerry Bold 9700. Does its svelte new package deliver all the Berry goodness?

NerdBoyTV NOTE: Just upgraded my daughter's phone on T-Mobile to the BlackBerry Bold 9700—she absolutely LOVES it! It's optical "track pad" is sooooooooooo awesome.

VIDEO: The Droid has landed!

Motorola's latest Droid commercial has people drooling (and running for cover), and T-mobile is just trying to get the lights turned on again.

Microsoft says it can restore Sidekick data

By Rachel Metz / msnbc.com (CLICK to read more)

"There may be a happy ending after all for owners of Sidekick phones who thought they might have permanently lost contact numbers and other personal information they had put on the gadget.

Earlier this week, T-Mobile said information stored by many Sidekick owners was 'almost certainly' gone for good following a failure of the computers that remotely stored the data.

But Microsoft Corp., whose Danger Inc. subsidiary makes the phones that are sold through T-Mobile USA, said Thursday it recovered 'most, if not all' of the missing data and will restore it as soon as it validates the information. Microsoft also apologized for the glitch."

When Cloud Fails: T-Mobile, Microsoft Lose Sidekick Customer Data

By Om Malik / Gigaom (CLICK to read more)

NerdBoyTV says, "This happened to my daughter, Alex...and no, she ain't happy."

"If you ever wondered what would happen when a cloud service fails, then you don’t have to wonder much. Earlier today customers of T-Mobile and the Sidekick data services provider, Danger, a subsidiary of Microsoft lost access to all their data. There are some who believe that this data wipeout is because of a botched upgrade. Why it happened matters little to those who are unlikely to get their data back, according to a note posted on T-Mobile forums."

I want the Samsung Memoir™

Is the Samsung Memoir a mobile phone with a camera? Or a camera with a mobile phone? Either way, with 8.0 megapixels, Xenon flash and a host of dedicated camera functions, the Memoir sets a new standard. But the Memoir doesn't stop there. It's also a music player, a full web browser, a GPS navigation system and one of the most advanced touchscreen phonts in the world. Smile.

Dammit, I WANT this phone (grin).

SHOW #70 - NerdBoyTV: PrintYourTwitter & T-Mobile Sale

In this episode of NerdBoyTV, Ryan Yee tells you about a SD memory card sale going on at T-Mobile and demos the Twitter app, PrintYourTwitter.com.