Is it Monday? I swear it's Monday. Data's out again on my (unlocked)
iPhone, the speakers I use with my computer at home are on the blink
and I fear I accidentally blew something out inside of them, and the
cable connecting my external hard drive to my computer broke after a
whole day and a half on the job. Yeeks.
That said, there's tons of
cell phone news today so I'm gonna bullet point a few stories here for
you now and then get on to some others in separate, full-length blog
posts:
Noah's Bark: You like the name? Andre thought it
up. Very clever. Think Noah's Ark meets PhoneDog (get it? we're
PhoneDog and dogs bark ... clever, right?). It's the name of my weekly
podcast, and episode two is now online for your listening pleasure. If
you use iTunes you can download episodes and subscribe for free via this handy dandy link.
We're working on a title graphic, so bear with us if the iTunes listing
isn't yet as snazzy as it will be. And I'm working on some special
guests and features for upcoming episodes, as well. Drop us a line at
infodog@phonedog.com and tell us what you think!
Android: Everyone is in a super tizzy thanks to the next week's confirmed
T-Mobile/Google press event to launch the first Android-powered phone.
Mark your calendars: Tuesday, Sep. 23 at 10:30 AM ET in NYC. I'll be
covering the event via Webcast from here in California, and will even
wake up early to do so despite the fact that I've got tickets to see
Spoon in San Francisco the night before. Maybe we'll set up a liveblog
page so you can follow the action in real time right here on PhoneDog.
More Android:
Wait, there's more! Boy Genius has some dish on the SECOND Android
phone, and it looks like it's gonna be on Sprint. More on that later,
but I wonder - six months from now will I be in a lather as I blog
about new rumors surrounding the release of the FIFTY-THIRD Android
phone? Man, I hope not. At some point there's a statute of
limitations for new product hype, right?
BlackBerry Flip 8220:
Looks like the release of the Flip 8220 on T-Mobile may have been
pushed back to sometime in November. I'm trying to get more info on
that one.
SE TM506: This is T-Mobile's first official 3G
phone, and it's a flip made by Sony Ericsson. I got a chance to open
up my review model yesterday and it's pretty cool. I've always liked
SE's UI and menu systems, and while the 506 is more or less "just" a
basic flip phone there's still something about it I dig. And it's not
the 3G, because I don't yet have 3G coverage from T-Mo out here in the
SF Bay Area. As Doug would put it, "this phone's got good hand feel."
The size, shape, and soft-grip plastics make the 506 feel great in the
hand, and the bright display and big buttons (except for the softkeys,
which may be too small) make it easy to use for calling and data/media
usage. I fired it up, made a call, and checked out the Web browser and
mobile Email application before downloading EA Sports' NCAA Football
game (which is really good). So far so good - and I even like the
somewhat odd black and green color scheme. More on this one -
including a video - in the coming days.
iPhone Woes: My unlocked iPhone running on T-Mobile woes
continue. I upgraded to firmware 2.1 and now my EDGE data doesn't
work. It's not like last time, where an update to the Big Boss T-Zones
Hack made everything right again. This time I keep gettiing a "You are
not subscribed to a cellular data plan" error, which is baloney b/c my
SIM card gets data just fine when I pop it into another handset. I'm
taking this as a sign that the Android phone is going to be super
awesome enough to make me switch. Otherwise, I might have to go legit
and get an iPhone 3G on AT&T. And that's something I really don't
want to do right now, given AT&T's network performance as of late.
