Cell Phone Reviews

Ogo Maker IXI Quits U.S. Market

IXI, maker of the Ogo messaging device, has decided to give up doing business in the United States. According to the San Francisco Business Times, the company has let go of 25% of its staff and will focus its ...
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Hands-On: Nokia N Series

We were able to spend a few moments with Nokia's new N Series phones, the N85 and N79. Read our first impressions.
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Cranky Windows Guy: Apple's iPhone Bugs Stopped Me From Switching to a Mac

I've always been a Windows user, which means I've always been subjected to the ridicule of holier-than-thou Apple fans. You know what I'm talking about: blue screen of death jokes, spelling Microsoft with a $ in place of the S, saying "it just works" with a smug, chubby-faced smirk. It's always been annoying, and it's always made me want to avoid using Apple products just so I wouldn't turn into one of those people. But then the iPhone came out, and I wanted it. But I being a Windows dude, I knew to wait a year for what I thought would be a more complete, less buggy version. It was Apple's opportunity to get me into the fold, to make me a member of the cult. And boy, did they blow it.

I really would love to know where Apple got this reputation of creating lily-white products that never need fixing, created by a company that cradles its customers in fluffy clouds of superior technology. According to my first experiences with an Apple OS, that's a whole lot of bullshit.

The iPhone 3G is infuriatingly buggy. It crashes. It doesn't get great speeds when it should, switching to EDGE in areas that have 3G coverage. Coming out of the subway, it takes minutes to find a signal again and stop claiming to get "No Service" in the middle of Manhattan, often requiring a restart. Requiring a restart to get service! What is this crap? And when I do have service, calls still drop and fail all the time. The keyboard lags so much that writing text messages is more annoying than using T9 texting on a number pad. The orientation switching when you rotate the phone is inconsistent at best. Backups take minutes, sometimes hours. Sometimes, the audio output dies and it needs to be restarted to listen to music through headphones. If you've got an iPhone 3G or have been reading news on Giz, none of this will come as a surprise to you. What's surprising to me is how they're reacting to to the problems.

I called Apple famed customer support to see if they had any solutions for these bugs. Their fix for my problem getting service when coming out of the subway? Turn Airplane Mode on and off. If there's a more ghetto fix for a problem than that, I'd like to hear it. Last time I checked the C train didn't have wings. As for when all of these bugs will be fixed, the guy on the phone said "Sooner or later it'll be working to its full potential." Oh, great. How helpful. When asked if I could revert to a previous firmware version, I was told to just wait for the next release. Great, thanks for nothing!

Overall, the customer service reps I talked to were friendly, but they've clearly been overwhelmed with calls about the iPhone (my average wait time was about nine minutes for the iPhone support number). They're overwhelmed because they're the only facet of Apple that's available to talk about just what's going on with the iPhone. Officially, Apple hasn't recognized any problems, only releasing two patches that say they offer "bug fixes" without going into any more detail. It's the standard Apple technique; giving no information whatsoever unless they feel like it suits them. And this arrogant company causes such heart palpitations in you fanboys?

If you try to go through the PR channels, you get the Apple standard "no comment." Supposedly, Steve Jobs himself emailed one single person and promised fixes next month. That doesn't count as an official statement. In fact, that's worse than nothing at all, because it just shows how little respect Jobs has for all of us. He has time to tell one jerkoff who files a bug report that fixes are coming in September but can't release a statement that says just that? Screw you, Steve.

When the Playstation 3 got some new firmware that bricked a number of consoles, Sony didn't keep mum on the subject. They rushed a new firmware out in a matter of days and kept in touch with reporters about what was going on. They even apologized: "We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you and appreciate your understanding and continued support." Apple hasn't acknowledged the iPhone issues to the press, let alone saying sorry for them. Because saying sorry would mean admitting that they screwed up.

The problem is that Apple has this reality distortion field that they use, which is a brilliant handling of PR most of the time. They give out tiny amounts of information, and by being so stingy they make everyone beg and salivate for little scraps But in the end, Apple is just a company like every other company. They screw up, they release things before they're ready and they botch crisis control. The reality distortion field can't cover for things like that. Their shit still stinks.

Before I got my iPhone, I was actually considering buying an Apple laptop. Can you believe it? Me, the Windows guy on the Giz staff, thinking of switching. Eventually, when the time comes to buy a new computer, I probably won't want to jump to Vista, after all. Why not try a Mac?

Now, after this experience, there's no way I will. I don't trust the computers to "just work," and if problems arise I don't trust Apple to handle them in an open way with customers. In fact, I expect them to try to keep things from me, I expect to continue to feel disrespected by King Jobs and his merry minions. And I'm not alone on this one. What could have been an amazing opportunity to introduce thousands of people to the Apple OS experience has turned people off rather than getting them hooked.

Japan's Ply Concept a Multilayered Fantasy Phone

This phone, inspired by the multiple layers of wooden sandwich in plywood, is of multiple slider design. Inside, and separated by tabs, are a printer, projector, gamepad and sliding downward, a dialpad. It's as cool as it is impossible to build, and so KDDI labs should feel proud for making an imaginary device with so much character. [KDDI via Cscout]

KDDI's Concept Cellphone is Half Transformer, Half Musical Box

The KDDI AU Design Project bunch over in Japan have stumped up with this latest concept phone for music cellphones of the future. And it blends two things we like a Giz: funky cellphone tech and Transformers. In fact Box To Play is less "robot in disguise," and more "hi-fi in disguise" because when it's a phone, it's a normal phone—keypad, camera and such—but when it transforms it's its own speaker system with a graphical visualizer around its faces. Neat, and exactly the sort of innovative design I'd like to see in future phones. Check out the movie of the concept in action at the KDDI link. [KDDI AU]

FCC Reveals Entry-Level Slider from Nokia

Documents seen on the FCC web site provide details about the newly approved Nokia 2680. This slider, an 850/1900 GSM device with AT&T markings on it, has a camera, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and basic messaging and mobile internet capabilities. AT&T ...
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HTC's S740 Is the Touch Diamond With a Keyboard, Runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard

HTC's gone and followed up their S730—which was itself an HTC Vox successor—with the HTC S740. The latest phone keeps the slide-out candybar form factor, complete with keypad on front and QWERTY on the back, but also takes huge design influences from the HTC Touch Diamond. It runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard edition (the gimpier one), but still looks pretty darn good for a phone of this form factor. Hit the jump for the full specs.

Size: 116.3 x 43.4 x 16.3 mm
Weight: 140g with battery
Networks: WCDMA/HSDPA: 900/2100 MHz for EU and Asia
GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Maximum speed: UL = 384 kbps; DL = 3.6/7.2 Mbps**
Operating system: Windows Mobile® 6.1 Standard
Display: 2.4-inch QVGA screen
Camera: 3.2 megapixel with fixed focus
Internal memory: 256 MB flash; 256 MB RAM
Memory card: microSD™
WLAN: 802.11b/g
Bluetooth®: 2.0 with EDR
GPS: GPS/AGPS
Interface: HTC ExtUSB™ (mini-USB and audio jack in one; USB 2.0 High-Speed)
Battery: 1000 mAh
Talk time: WCDMA: Up to 320 minutes*** / GSM: Up to 380 minutes***
Standby time: WCDMA: Up to 400 hours*** / GSM: Up to 280 hours***
Special features: Sliding QWERTY keyboard, FM radio, Google Maps, RSS Hub
Chipset: Qualcomm® MSM7225, 528 MHz

Nokia Rolls Out N85 and N79 Smartphones

We've had eyes on both of these for a while, but Nokia today has dropped a couple new N-Series phones into the official UK chute, and they are expected to follow stateside soon. The N85 slider (left) appears to be replacing the N81, and the N79 candybar does the same for the N78 (even though it only dropped in the US a few months ago). Gaming and music seems to be the focus of the N85, which adds N-Gage support and ditches the built-in storage in favor of an 8GB micro SD card. An AMOLED screen reduces power consumption for up to 28 hours of music playback. The N79 bumps the N78's camera up to 5MP and adds an LED flash and swappable faceplates. All feature Wi-Fi, GPS and 3G across the board, but the rumored US 3G support we're still waiting to hear for sure on. [Pocket Lint via Electronista]

Casio Exilim W63CA 8-Megapixel Super Japanese Camera Phone Hits FCC For Some Reason
The super Japanese Exilim W63CA cellphone has hit the FCC, which comes with a flip body and an 8-megapixel camera. Casio's taking the same tactic Sony Ericsson does with their Cyber-shot cellphones and placing a camera brand on a high-end camera phone, hopefully to advance both the phone and the camera brand in the US. Engadget says the phone should have an 800x480 pixel screen, but chances are it's not going to actually come here on any provider—most likely it's being certified as to not give Americans radiation poisoning when the Japanese come here on vacation. [FCC via Engadget via Boing Boing Gadgets]

Leaked Shot Of HTC Touch Diamond Shows CDMA Version Ate All the Pies

Over at BoyGeniusReports is this leaked shot of what's allegedly the CDMA version of HTC's fabby Touch Diamond cellphone. And oh boy, oh boy... that's one phone that's not been on a diet: compared to the GSM version sitting on top of it it's one big ugly fat fellow. Apparently it's actually "more comfortable to hold," but you've got to wonder about the weight of the gizmo, and the tightness of your pockets. [Howardforums via BGR]