Cell Phone Hub

Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation

We've heard the word that hands-free setups don't make cellphone driving any safer, but this new study comparing phone use to driving under the influence seems like it's taking things a bit far. Apparently some new research, using a driving simulation device as to not expose any real drivers to the dangers of those who talk, is showing cellphone users to be as bad or worse than the average drunk driver. Forty volunteers used the simulator, taking turns trying it undistracted, with a handheld phone, with a handsfree device and while blowing a 0.08 blood-alcohol level -- the average level of impairment in the US. Three participants ended up rear-ending the car in front of them, and all three were talking on the phone, not drunk. The study noticed little difference between hands-free and handheld phone talkers, and found they were 9 percent slower to hit the breaks, and varied their speed more than normal drivers. Drunk drivers would drive slower, yet more aggressively, and all three groups were under the impression that they weren't impaired. We'd still rather have a talker behind the wheel than a drunk, especially when the blood-alcohol level shoots past 0.08 -- as it tends to do -- but we're guessing legislators will see otherwise and jump at the chance to clamp down on conversationalists.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

It's nothing new these days to have a full-fledged Pocket PC squeezed into seemingly impossible form factors -- HTC's Star Trek comes quickly to mind -- but we're pretty sure Compulab is breaking some new ground with their CM-X270L mini PC. A mere two-thirds the size of a credit card, the 1.7 by 2.6-inch device holds an XScale processor, 512MB of flash memory, 128MB of RAM, a sound card and 802.11b WiFi. The device also manages extra snazz such as a PCI bus and 4 USB host ports, putting this thing beyond the realm of the average PDA. Obviously, those hugemongeous antennas put a little bit of a damper on this thing's portability, but we're guessing this thing needs a few extra components to get moving anyways, so we'll let 'em fly for now. The best news is that the device not only runs Windows CE and Linux, but goes for $47 a piece if you buy 'em 10,000 at a time. We're sure that smartphone and PDA manufacturers will be more than happy to pass the size and cost savings on to us consumers.

[Via The Inquirer]

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Filed under: Cellphones

We tend to give our wireless carriers a pretty tough time around here, but not without just cause. Case in point: early exit fees. It's semi-understandable to charge the $150 to $200 contract termination fee when folks cancel near the beginning of their two-year contracts, however, that's a bit steep if you cancel say, 18 to 23 3/4 months in. Verizon Wireless, however, has gone on record with plans to prorate early termination fees starting this fall. If so, they would be the first major US carrier to lesson exit fees on departing customers the closer they got to the end of their contract. That's certainly a nod in the direction of consumer satisfaction and welcome news for us early adoptin' nomads with an innate fear of committal. Sure, regulators must still "review the details" but the FCC chairman, Kevin Martin, already seems stoked by the benefit to customers in what "could signal a new trend among wireless carriers." We'll just have to sit tight for now and hope these dominos begin a rapid, and timely tumble.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Video

It's thin, but not too thin; chic, but nothing your butchier friends are gonna call you a metro for having one;, it's got features, just not many, and none are really all that impressive. Yes, that's right, it's Mobile ESPN's second cellphone, the Samsung ACE, otherwise known as the A900. Expect the same set of features (Bluetooth, swiveling camera, EV-DO, audio and media playback) as its counterpart, but with a $99 price tag, a black paint job, and ESPN logos all over the damn thing. So thank you no, we'll continue holding out for Mobile ESPN2 to launch so we can catch some real football games (and spelling bee championships, etc.).

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Filed under: Cellphones

It pays to be a T-Mobile customer: while the rest of the country will have to endure nearly two more weeks of excruciating waiting to get their hands on a Sidekick 3 (well, except for us), current Mobbers have been snatching up the new device since it became available at one minute after midnight. Agreeing to a one-year contract extension will net you an SK3 for $350, while two more years of living the Mob life will knock off another fifty bucks, and a "naked" unit will set you back an even $400.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this is]

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Filed under: Cellphones

The Golden State has always been fairly legislation-happy when it comes to keeping things green, and now they're trying to "Keep California Beautiful" with a new program to require cellphone recycling. Californians have been restricted from throwing phones into the trash since February 8, 2006, but as of July 1 all cellphone retailers in California will be required to establish a collection and recycling program. Recycling will be free, but if even that is too much of a hassle, you can visit the KCB website to get a postage paid box for sending your old phone to a happy resting place from the comfort of your own home. KCB will also provide postage-paid collection boxes to businesses for collecting from employees and customers, so the program shouldn't cause much of an inconvenience. Unless, of course, you wanted to mix a bit of arsenic and beryllium into your water supply.

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Filed under: Cellphones

It was a long day for the Boy Genius, but dude hooked Engadget Mobile up with a veritable cornucopia of launch plans for Cingular, including releases for the Motorola KRZR (aka Canary), V3i, HTC Hermes and StarTrek, the new BlackBerry Stealth, the Treo Nitro and Treo Lennon, HP iPAQ hw6920/25, and Nokia E62. Go check 'em out over at Engadget Mobile, you won't be sorry.

Treo Nitro and Treo Lennon coming to Cingular in October
The Boy Genius Report: BlackBerry Stealth
The Boy Genius Report: Canary is KRZR, getting launched September
The Boy Genius Report: Cingular snags Motorola V3i, Sony Ericsson w810
The Boy Genius Report: HTC Hermes & StarTrek, and iPAQ hw6920 coming to US
Nokia E62 to drop for $599/$399 in September/October

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Singapore's CommunicAsia expo, which ended last week, is still leaving us with little bundles of mobile joy here and there. Today we present for you Qool Labs' QDA Icon and QDA Lite, Windows Mobile 5.0 follow-ons to last year's QDA Oh!. The Icon is the more interesting of the two, rocking four honest megapixels on a CCD sensor, A2DP support, and a RAZR-like etched keypad. The Lite offers a more run-of-the-mill 2 megapixel CMOS camera and mainstream design but includes WiFi, which the Icon does not. Expect both tri-band Pocket PCs to make their way into Asian consumers' hands later this year.

[Via Slashphone (Icon / Lite)]

Read - Qool Labs QDA Icon
Read - Qool Labs QDA Lite

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Perhaps you've heard the buzz, but if not there's a rumor going around right now that mobile communicator rivals Palm and Research In Motion are set to announce a merger of equals as early as this very Thursday. But before you get your panties in a twist about the seemingly possibilities of TreoBerries or BlackTreos (no, not those black Treos), you should trace the breadcrumb trail from the rumor's prominent placement on CNET all the way back to an anonymous LiveJournal prominently featuring the slogan "Right now I am big on PALM stock, because the Treo is gonna be huge.." Of course, we'd never rule anything out only because it came from an anonymous source, but we're definitely suspicious. The author of the LJ, titled Covert Stock Operations, points out that Palm would go through with the deal because RIM can offer them "a great investor relations department," "acceleration of market dominance," and a lot of other fluffy reasons; apparently it's in RIM's best interest to buy Palm because they're a primary mobile communicator competitor who are beginning to support Microsoft's entry into the push email space, and their hardware and software offerings would round one anothers' out, complimenting and improving their total respective product portfolios. Honestly, we see RIM and Palm as two disparate, headstrong companies with a lot less incentive to merge with anyone -- let alone with one another -- given the goings on of the last few months. RIM's emerged from the fog of the NTP case and Palm's 2006 handset offerings are gaining in momentum; whereas there's no way we can assure you the two won't be merging, um, this week, we can definitely say Occam's razor would dictate the anonymous Palm stock pimping blog might have more to gain from the rumor than either of these companies probably would in actually merging.

[Via CNET]

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Filed under: Cellphones

The rumors of Intel searching for a buyer were circulating, and it looks like they were true: Intel is selling off their mobile chip arm -- responsible for the quite successful XScale group of processors -- to Marvell Technology Group for $600 million. With chips making notable appearances in Treo, Blackberry and HTC devices, and pulling in a reported $250 million in revenue last year, we're still scratching our heads as to why exactly Intel would want to get rid of such a successful portion of their business. We'd think powering smartphones would be a priority for Intel right now, but the word is that Intel will have an option to receive $100 million of the purchase price in Marvell stock, so they might not be out of the game entirely. The chip unit currently employs 1,400 people, and Marvell plans to retain the "vast majority" of them, so this move shouldn't be too traumatic for most parties involved. We just hope they keep up with the R&D to get us smaller, faster, cooler and cheaper chips on the regular.

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