Cell Phone Hub

Ever since the Dev-Team kinda sorta promised that they would have a neatly packaged iPhone 3G unlock ready for release by the year’s end, we’ve all been waiting on pins and needles, counting down the moments until freedom was in hand yet again. Now, a cryptic message on the crew’s blog has been followed up with a not-at-all secretive image (shown above), which shows that whatever magic they’ve got going on will work with the latest (v2.2) iPhone 3G firmware. According to a related writeup at yellowsn0w, we’re clearly told that the unlock tool will be made available by midnight PST at the latest, though we’re hoping those guys have their AM / PM mixed up — otherwise, you might be waiting until noontime tomorrow. At any rate, now you’ve more than a day off and black eyed peas to look forward to tomorrow, right?

Via yellowsn0w and MobileCrunch]

Filed under: Cellphones

Dev-Team teases v2.2-compatible iPhone 3G unlock for the New Year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Despite a decent selection, we get the feeling Android developers have really been holding back until they can make a little money for their hard labor. Google exec Eric Chu is telling registered Android Market members via email that the rollout of paid apps is still coming first quarter of next year. He said it will occur in stages, starting with the US and UK first, followed by Germany, Austria, and Netherlands for phase two and France, Italy, and Spain after that, with more countries to be announced by the end of Q1 2009. Chu also said to expect an update to the Market website in mid-January that’ll allow developers to target specific countries for their apps. Android devs, we hope you’re ready — we can’t wait to see what toys you’ll give us once you’re able to make some coins from it.

Filed under: Cellphones

Paid apps still coming to Android Market in Q1 ‘09, US and UK rollout first originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Here’s an odd one for you. Tobias Engel of the Chaos Communication Congress has discovered a rather nasty exploit that’ll cause any Nokia S60 devices running versions 2.6, 2.8, 3.0 or 3.1 to stop receiving SMS and MMS messages. The “Curse of Silence,” which has been independently verified by F-Secure, is triggered by sending an SMS that begins with an email address that’s at least 32 characters long. The attacker must also change the protocol identifier to internet electronic mail before sending. Devices with versions 2.8 and 3.1 lock up after 11 such messages and still have some limited receiving capabilities, while 2.6 and 3.0 devices will go completely mum after just one attack. In both cases a factory reset is required to fix it, and he says there is no other known workaround for the user. We don’t imagine this being a pervasive issue, but if you’ve got any tech-savvy enemies or malevolent pranksters in your life, you’ve been warned. Video demonstration is after the break, or hit up the read link to see if your device is among those listed at risk.

[Via Hack a Day]

Read - Vulnerability Advisory
Read - F-Secure Verification

Continue reading ‘Curse of Silence’ exploit squelches inbound SMS/MMS to Nokia S60 devices

Filed under: Cellphones

‘Curse of Silence’ exploit squelches inbound SMS/MMS to Nokia S60 devices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Clearly, Mike Lazaridis has the chops when it comes to running a business. What he clearly lacks, however, is a firm definition of the term “netbook.” To his credit, we still feel the exact boundaries for netbooks have yet to be determined (fret not, Psion Teklogix is hammering out those details), but calling a BlackBerry Storm one is — how do you say? — a bit of a stretch. During a recent sit down with RIM’s president, CNET Asia heard the bigwig answer like so when questioned about viewing netbooks as competitors: “No, I think I can put netbooks in here [referring to the BlackBerry Storm]. These are netbooks. They are just smaller.” Wait, Mike — don’t you think smartphones are more like MIDs or UMPCs? Or do we just have you all wrong here?

[Via phoneArena]

Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops

RIM’s president calls BlackBerry Storm a small netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 06:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Not that we haven’t seen patently absurd lens attachments for mobiles before, but we’ve yet to come across any that were this universal (and be to honest, this useful). Sure, one could argue that a detachable wide-angle, fisheye or 2x telephoto lens made for a cellphone camera is more likely to do nothing than something, but we prefer to look on the sunny side of things. In other words, it’s totally worth $16.99 just to be able to make your subjects pause as you whip out the correct lens for the occasion… which you’re photographing on your C905.

[Via OhGizmo]

Filed under: Cellphones

Magnetic / detachable lenses suddenly make cellphone cameras fun originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We know, the holiday season is officially kaput, but if you still owe that niece or nephew a gift and you feel like teaching them tech-savvy and brand loyalty, you might want to consider one of these KIRF walkie-talkies / organizers that let you send text messages in addition to voice calls in the same vein as that Slide Click we saw back in the day. Trust us, typing on a small keyboard or numpad is one of the best skills they can have when they grow up — it’s a lot more practical than the Morse code we learned back in our day. The lone exception here is the feature-less RAZR knockoff that does voice-only — hey, it’s only fitting that the one phone here that doesn’t knock off a smartphone have less features.

[Thanks, James]

Read - Discovery Exclusive Pink Slide and Text Messengers (Sidekick)
Read - iChat SMS Text Messenger/Chat Talkies (Blackberry)
Read - iText SMS Text Messenger (iPhone)
Read - Discovery Exclusive Flip Phone Walkie-Talkies (RAZR)

Filed under: Cellphones

Keepin’ it real fake, part CLXXV: The SMS walkie-talkie roundup originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Dec 2008 03:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Acer’s just updated their 8930G gaming line, adding the 8930-7665 to its arsenal. This 18.4-inch beast boasts Intel’s new (and surprisingly affordable) Core 2 Quad Mobile Q9000 CPU, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 500GB 7200 SATA hard drive, and NVIDIA GeForce 9700M GT graphics with 512MB of dedicated video memory. Other than that, it’s identical to previous 8930G models. Sure, it’s a little extreme, but hey — why not? It’s available now, if you’re willing to drop $1800.

[Via CNET]

Filed under: Cellphones

Acer’s quad-core packing Aspire 8930G hits the streets, guns blazing originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It was deliciously inevitable that a watch phone would eventually show up that could actually “pack it all in,” and it looks like LG has actually accomplished that feat in its LG-GD910 model. Of note, the phone packs a touchscreen LCD, 3G data, and a built-in camera for videoconferencing and being a general badass. Sure, browsing to your favorite gadget blog might be a tad bit difficult on that 1.43-inch screen, and there’s always the question of fashion, but those are minor quibbles — the real question is where can we get one, and for how much. LG should be showing this off at CES next month (it showed off a predecessor this January), and plans to release it in Japan and Europe, but we’ve got a couple of cereal box-delivered 2-way wrist radios crossed behind our backs in hopes for a US berth.

[Via Electronista]

Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables

LG’s magical GD910 wrist phone packs touchscreen, camera and rainbows originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Dec 2008 09:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Seeing how it’s the end of the year, it’s as good a time as any to formulate a list of 2008’s killer smartphones — and with an 8-megapixel cam rounding out a what’s-what list of awesome specs, the S60-based Samsung INNOV8 really needs to makes the cut. In fact, it’s so hardcore — arguably the most powerful S60 phone ever released — that it seemed like a forgone conclusion from day one that we wouldn’t be seeing it in North America (yeah, we’re jaded like that). Samsung might have other ideas, though, now that we’ve seen a version of the INNOV8 garner FCC approval with WCDMA (presumably 7.2Mbps HSDPA, to be specific) on the 850 and 1900MHz bands. Given that Samsung’s mobile division doesn’t really have a direct relationship with end users in the States, we’d expect this to be a branded set for either Rogers or AT&T — but at any rate, whichever carrier it happens to be, we salute your infinite wisdom.

[Via Symbian-Guru]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Samsung’s mighty INNOV8 sk8s through FCC with US-friendly 3G originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Dec 2008 06:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

C’mon folks, does it really take an in-depth research study to figure this one out? On the whole, per-use SMS rates have doubled from $0.10 to $0.20 in the span of three years, and carriers have shown no shame in pushing messaging packs (the “unlimited” one in particular) in an effort to snag more revenue per user. We already knew that Senator Herb Kohl was looking into the matter, and a new piece in The New York Times clearly explains just how lucrative these bite-sized messages are for carriers. We’re told that most consumers simply assume that it’s costing operators more each year as the volume of texts sent increases; according to University of Waterloo professor Srinivasan Keshav, “it doesn’t cost the carrier much more to transmit a hundred million messages than a million.” You see, SMS messages are elusively hidden within the so-called “control channel,” which is space already reserved for the operation of the wireless network. So long as messages are kept concise (say, 160 characters or less), they can be sent without any real implication on the channel. Will this epiphany somehow change the way we’re being gouged? Tough to say, but don’t think for a second that carriers won’t figure out another way to nickle-and-dime you if the hand is forced.

[Thanks, Jeevan]

Filed under: Cellphones

The obvious truth about text messaging: you’re getting ripped off originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Dec 2008 21:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.